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THE LIBRARY OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF

NORTH CAROLINA

AT CHAPEL HILL

WILSON ANNEX

Fran the collection

Alfred Garvin Engstrom

and

Mary Claire Randolph

Engstrom

UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL

00020135612

THE INSIDIOUS
DR. FU-MANCHU

This book is due at the WALTER R. DAVIS LIBRARY on
the last date stamped under "Date Due." If not on hold it
may be renewed by bringing it to the library.

DATE RET
DUE 2

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The Insidious
Dr. Fu-Manchu

Being a somewhat detailed account of the amazing adventures
of Nayland Smith in his trailing of the sinister Chinaman.

By SAX ROHMKR
Author of

"The Yellow Claw, ' ' ' 'The Return
of Dr, Fu-Manchu," Etc,

A. L. BURT COMPANY

Publishers New York

Published by Arrangements with Robert M. McBride & Company

TH? I I8RARY

THE UNIVERSH" >RTH CAROLINA

AT CHAPSi. HILL

Second Printing
September, 1913

Third Printing
October, 1913

Fourth Printing
September, ig*7

Fifth Printing
January, 1920

PRINTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Published, September, 1913

THE INSIDIOUS
DR. FU-MANCHU

Chapter I

44 A GENTLEMAN to see you, Doctor."

/•^L From across the common a clock
sounded the half-hour.

" Ten-thirty ! " I said. " A late visitor. Show
him up, if you please."

I pushed my writing aside and tilted the lamp-
shade, as footsteps sounded on the landing. The
next moment I had jumped to my feet, for a tall,
lean man, with his square-cut, clean-shaven face
sun-baked to the hue of coffee, entered and ex-
tended both hands, with a cry:

"Good old Petrie! Didn't expect me, 111
swear ! "

It was Nayland Smith — whom I had thought
to be in Burma!

"Smith," I said, and gripped, his hands hard,
"this is a delightful surprise! Whatever— ■
however — "

2 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" Excuse me, Petrie"! " he broke in. " Don't
put it down to the sun ! " And he put out the
lamp, plunging the room into darkness.

I was too surprised to speak.

" No doubt you will think me mad," he con-
tinued, and, dimly, I could see him at the window,
peering out into the road, " but before you are
many hours older you will know that I have good
reason to be cautious. Ah, nothing suspicious!
Perhaps I am first this time." And, stepping
back to the writing-table he relighted the lamp.

" Mysterious enough for you? " he laughed, and
glanced at my unfinished MS. "A story, eh?
From which I gather that the district is beastly
healthy — what, Petrie? Well, I can put some
material in your way that, if sheer uncanny mys-
tery is a marketable commodity, ought to make
you independent of influenza and broken legs
and shattered nerves and all the rest."

I surveyed him doubtfully, but there was noth-
ing in his appearance to justify me in supposing
him to suffer from delusions. His eyes were
too bright, certainly, and a hardness now had
crept over his face. I got out the whisky and
siphon, saying:

"You have taken your leave early?"

" I am not on leave," he replied, and slowly
filled his pipe. " I am on duty."

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 3

" On duty ! " I exclaimed. " What, are you
moved to London or something? "

" I have got a roving commission, Petrie, and
tt doesn't rest with me where I am to-day nor
where I shall be to-morrow."

There was something ominous in the words,
nnd, putting down my glass, its contents un-
jasted, I faced round and looked him squarely
In the eyes.

"Out with it!" I said. "What is it all
ubout? "

Smith suddenly stood up and stripped off his
roat, Rolling back his left shirt-sleeve he re-
vealed a wicked-looking wound in the fleshy
fart of the forearm. It was quite healed, but
curiously striated for an inch or so around.

" Ever seen one like it? " he asked.

" Not exactly," I confessed. " It appears to
Jvave been deeply cauterized."

" Right ! Very deeply ! " he rapped. " A barb
steeped in the venom of a hamadryad went in
there ! "

A shudder I could not repress ran coldly
through me at mention of that most deadly of
all the reptiles of the East.

" There's only one treatment," he continued,
rolling his sleeve down again, " and that's with
a sharp knife, a match, and a broken cartridge.

1 THE INSIDIOUS DB. FU-MANCHU

I lay on my back, raving, for three days after-
wards, in a forest that stank with malaria, but I
should have been lying there now if I had hesi-
tated. Here's the point. It was not an acci-
rdent!"

" What do you mean? "

" I mean that it was a deliberate attempt on
my life, and I am hard upon the tracks of the
man who extracted that venom — patiently, drop
by drop — from the poison-glands of the snake,
who prepared that arrow, and who caused it to
be shot at me."

« What fiend is this?"

"A fiend who, unless my calculations are at
fault, is now in London, and who regularly wars
with pleasant weapons of that kind. Petrie, I
have traveled from Burma not in the interests
of the British Government merely, but in the
interests of the entire white race, and I honestly
believe — though I pray I may be wrong — that
its survival depends largely upon the success
of my mission."

To say that I was perplexed conveys no idea
of the mental chaos created by these extraor-
dinary statements, for into my humdrum sub-
urban life Nayland Smith had brought fantasy
of the wildest. I did not know what to think,
what to believe.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 5

u I am wasting precious time ! " he rapped de-
cisively, and, draining his glass, he stood up. " I
came straight to you, because you are the only
man I dare to trust. Except the big chief at
headquarters, you are the only person in Eng-
land, I hope, who knows that Nay land Smith has
quitted Burma. I must have someone with me,
Petrie, all the time — it's imperative ! Can you
put me up here, and spare a few days to the
strangest business, I promise you, that ever was
recorded in fact or fiction?"

I agreed readily enough, for, unfortunately,
my professional duties were not onerous.

" Good man ! " he cried, wringing my hand in
his impetuous way. " We start now."

"What, to-night?"

"To-night! I had thought of turning in, I
must admit. I have not dared to sleep for forty-
eight hours, except in fifteen-minute stretches.
But there is one move that must be made to-night
and immediately. I must warn Sir Crichton
Davey."

" Sir Crichton Davey — of the India—"

" Petrie, he is a doomed man ! Unless he fol-
lows my instructions without question, without
hesitation — before Heaven, nothing can save
him ! I do not know when the blow will fall, how;
it will fall, nor from whence, but I know that m^

6 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHTJ

first duty is to warn him. Let us walk down td
the corner of the common and get a taxi."

How strangely does the adventurous intrude
upon the humdrum ; for, when it intrudes at allf
more often than not its intrusion is sudden and
unlooked for. To-day, we may seek for romance
and fail to find it: unsought, it lies in wait for
us at most prosaic corners of life's highway.

The drive that night, though it divided the
drably commonplace from the wildly bizarre—'
though it was the bridge between the ordinary
and the outre — has left no impression upon my
mind. Into the heart of a weird mystery the
cab bore me; and in reviewing my memories of
those days I wonder that the busy thorough-
fares through which we passed did not display
before my eyes signs and portents — warnings*

It was not so. I recall nothing of the route
and little of import that passed between us (wa
both were strangely silent, I think) until we*
were come to our journey's end. Then:

" What's this?" muttered my friend hoarsely.

Constables were moving on a little crowd of
curious idlers who pressed about the steps of
Sir Crichton Davey's house and sought to peer in
at the open door. Without waiting for the cab
to draw up to the curb, Nayland Smith recklessly
leaped out and I followed close at his heels.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 7i

"What has happened?" he demanded breath-
lessly of a constable.

The latter glanced at him doubtfully, but
something in his voice and bearing commanded
respect.

" Sir Crichton Davey has been killed, sir."

Smith lurched back as though he had received
a physical blow, and clutched my shoulder
convulsively. Beneath the heavy tan his face had
blanched, and his eyes were set in a stare of hor-
ror.

" My God ! " he whispered. " I am too late ! "■

With clenched fists he turned and, pressing
through the group of loungers, bounded up the
steps. In the hall a man who unmistakably was
a Scotland Yard official stood talking to a foot-
man. Other members of the household were mov-
ing about, more or less aimlessly, and the chilly
hand of King Fear had touched one and all, for,
as they came and went, they glanced ever over
their shoulders, as if each shadow cloaked a
menace, and listened, as it seemed, for some sound
wThich they dreaded to hear.

Smith strode up to the detective and showed
him a card, upon glancing at which the Scotland
Yard man said something in a low voice, and,
nodding, touched his hat to Smith in a respect-
ful manner.

8 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 4

A few brief questions and answers, and, in
gloomy silence, we followed the detective np the
heavily carpeted stair, along a corridor lined
with pictures and busts, and into a large library.
A group of people were in this room, and one, in
whom I recognized Chalmers Cleeve, of Harley
Street, was bending over a motionless form
stretched upon a couch. Another door communi-
cated with a small study, and through the opening
I could see a man on all fours examining the car-
pet. The uncomfortable sense of hush, the group
about the physician, the bizarre figure crawling,
beetle-like, across the inner room, and the grim
hub, around which all this ominous activity
turned, made up a scene that etched itself in-
delibly on my mind.

As we entered Dr. Cleeve straightened himself,
frowning thoughtfully.

" Frankly, I do not care to venture any opinion
at present regarding the immediate cause of
death," he said. " Sir Crichton was addicted to
cocaine, but there are indications which are not
in accordance with cocaine-poisoning. I fear
that only a post-mortem can establish the facts —
if," he added, " we ever arrive at them. A most
mysterious case ! "

Smith stepping forward and engaging the fa-

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 9

mous pathologist in conversation, I seized the op-
portunity to examine Sir Crichton's body.

The dead man was in evening dress, but wore
an old smoking-jacket. He had been of spare but
hardy build, with thin, aquiline features, which
now were oddly puffy, as were his clenched hands.
I pushed back his sleeve, and saw the marks of
the hypodermic syringe upon his left arm.
Quite mechanically I turned my attention to the
right arm. It was unscarred, but on the back of
the hand was a faint red mark, not unlike the im-
print of painted lips. I examined it closely, and
even tried to rub it off, but it evidently was
caused by some morbid process of local inflam-
mation, if it were not a birthmark.

Turning to a pale young man whom I had
understood to be Sir Crichton's private secretary,
I drew his attention to this mark, and inquired
if it were constitutional.

" It is not, sir," answered Dr. Cleeve, over-
hearing my question. " I have already made
that inquiry. Does it suggest anything to your
mind? I must confess that it affords me no
assistance."

" Nothing," I replied. " It is most curious."

" Excuse me, Mr. Burboyne," said Smith, now
turning to the secretary, "but Inspector Wey-

10 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

mouth will tell you that I act with authority. I
understand that Sir Crichton was — seized with!
illness in his study? "

" Yes — at half-past ten. I was working here
in the library, and he inside, as was our custom."

" The communicating door was kept closed? "

" Yes, always. It was open for a minute or
less about ten-twenty-five, when a message came
for Sir Crichton. I took it in to him, and he
then seemed in his usual health."

"What was the message?"

" I could not say. It was brought by a dis-
trict messenger, and he placed it beside him on
the table. It is there now, no doubt."

"And at half -past ten?"

" Sir Crichton suddenly burst open the door
and threw himself, with a scream, into the
library. I ran to him but he waved me back.
His eyes were glaring horribly. I had just
reached his side when he fell, writhing, upon the
floor. He seemed past speech, but as I raised
him and laid him upon the couch, he gasped
something that sounded like ' The red hand ! ?
Before I could get to bell or telephone he
was dead ! "

Mr. Burboyne's voice shook as he spoke the
words, and Smith seemed to find this evidence
confusing.

\
THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 11'

"You do not think he referred to the mark
on his own hand?"

" I think not. From the direction of his last
glance, I feel sure he referred to something in
the study."

"What did you do?"

" Having summoned the servants, I ran into
the study. But there was absolutely nothing un-
usual to be seen. The windows were closed and
fastened. He worked with closed windows in
the hottest weather. There is no other door, for
the study occupies the end of a narrow wing, so
that no one could possibly have gained access to
it, whilst I was in the library, unseen by me.
Had someone concealed himself in the study
earlier in the evening — and I am convinced that
it offers no hiding-place — he could only have
come out again by passing through here."

Nayland Smith tugged at the lobe of his left
ear, as was his habit when meditating.

" You had been at work here in this way for
some time? "

" Yes. Sir Crichton was preparing an im-
portant book."

" Had anything unusual occurred prior to this
evening? "

" Yes," said Mr. Burboyne, with evident per-
plexity ; " though I attached no importance to it

12 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

at the time. Three nights ago Sir Crichton came
out to me, and appeared very nervous; but at
times his nerves — you know? Well, on this oc-
casion he asked me to search the study. He had
an idea that something was concealed there/'

" Some thing or someone? V

" * Something ? was the word he used. I
searched, but fruitlessly, and he seemed quite sat-
isfied, and returned to his work."

" Thank you, Mr. Burboyne. My friend and
I would like a few minutes' private investigation
in the study."

Chapter II

SIR CRICHTON DAVEY'S study was a
small one, and a glance sufficed to show
that, as the secretary had said, it offered
no hiding-place. It was heavily carpeted, and
over-full of Burmese and Chinese ornaments and
curios, and upon the mantelpiece stood several
framed photographs which showed this to be the
sanctum of a wealthy bachelor who was no
misogynist. A map of the Indian Empire oc-
cupied the larger part of one wall. The grate
was empty, for the weather was extremely warm,
and a green-shaded lamp on the littered writing-
table afforded the only light. The air was stale,
for both windows were closed and fastened..

Smith immediately pounced upon a large,
square envelope that lay beside the blotting-pad.
Sir Crichton had not even troubled to open it,
but my friend did so. It contained a blank sheet
of paper!

" Smell ! " he directed, handing the letter to me.

I raised it to my nostrils. It was scented
with some pungent perfume.

14 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

"What is it?" I asked.

" It is a rather rare essential oil," was the
reply, "which I have met with before, though
never in Europe. I begin to understand,
Petrie."

He tilted the lamp-shade and made a close ex-
amination of the scraps of paper, matches, and
other debris that lay in the grate and on the
hearth. I took up a copper vase from the mantel-
piece, and was examining it curiously, when he
turned, a strange expression upon his face.

" Put that back, old man," he said quietly.

Much surprised, I did as he directed.

" Don't touch anything in the room. It may
be dangerous."

Something in the tone of his voice chilled me,
and I hastily replaced the vase, and stood by the
door of the study, watching him search, method-
ically, every inch of the room — behind the books,
in all the ornaments, in table drawers, in cup-
boards, on shelves.

"That will do," he said at last. "There is
nothing here and I have no time to search
farther."

We returned to the library.

" Inspector Weymouth," said my friend, " I
have a particular reason for asking that Sir
Crichton's body be removed from this room at

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 15

once and the library locked. Let no one be ad-
mitted on any pretense whatever until you hear
from me."

It spoke volumes for the mysterious credentials
borne by my friend that the man from Scotland
Yard accepted his orders without demur, and,
after a brief chat with Mr. Burboyne, Smith
passed briskly downstairs. In the hall a man
who looked like a groom out of livery was wait-
ing.

"Are you Wills?" asked Smith.

"Yes, sir,"

" It was you who heard a cry of some kind at
the rear of the house about the time of Sir
Crichton's death?"

" Yes, sir. I was locking the garage door,
and, happening to look up at the window of Sir
Crichton's study, I saw him jump out of his chair.
Where he used to sit at his writing, sir, you
could see his shadow on the blind. Next minute
I heard a call out in the lane."

"What kind of call?"

The man, whom the uncanny happening clearly
had frightened, seemed puzzled for a suitable
description.

" A sort of wail, sir," he said at last. " I
never heard anything like it before, and don't
want to again."

16 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

"Like this?" inquired Smith, and he uttered
a low, wailing cry, impossible to describe.

Wills perceptibly shuddered; and, indeed, it
was an eerie sound.

" The same, sir, I think," he said, " but much
louder."

" That will do," said Smith, and I thought I
detected a note of triumph in his voice. " But
stay! Take us through to the back of the
house."

The man bowed and led the way, so that
shortly we found ourselves in a small, paved
courtyard. It was a perfect summer's night,
and the deep blue vault above was jeweled with
myriads of starry points. How impossible it
seemed to reconcile that vast, eternal calm with
the hideous passions and fiendish agencies which
that night had loosed a soul upon the infinite.

" Up yonder are the study windows, sir.
Over that wall on your left is the back lane
from which the cry came, and beyond is Kegent's
Park."

" Are the study windows visible from there? "

" Oh, yes, sir."

" Who occupies the adjoining house? "

" Major-General Piatt-Houston, sir ; but the
family is out of town."

" Those iron stairs are a means of communica-

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 17

tion "between the domestic offices and the serv-
ants' quarters, I take it? "

" Yes, sir."

" Then send someone to make my business
known to the Major-General's housekeeper; I
want to examine those stairs."

Singular though my friend's proceedings ap-
peared to me, I had ceased to wonder at any-
thing. Since Nayland Smith's arrival at my
rooms I seemed to have been moving through the
fitful phases of a nightmare. My friend's ac-
count of how he came by the wound in his arm ;
the scene on our arrival at the house of Sir Crich-
ton Davey; the secretary9s story of the dying
man's cry, " The red hand ! " ; the hidden perils
of the study ; the wail in the lane — all were fit-
ter incidents of delirium than of sane reality.
So, when a white-faced butler made us known
to a nervous old lady who proved to be the
housekeeper of the next-door residence, I was
not surprised at Smith's saying:

" Lounge up and down outside, Petrie. Ev-
eryone has cleared off now. It is getting late.
Keep your eyes open and be on your guard. I
thought I had the start, but he is here before me,
and, what is worse, he probably knows by now
that I am here, too."

With which he entered the house and left me

18 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

out in the square, with leisure to think, to try;
to understand.

The crowd which usually haunts the scene of
a sensational crime had been cleared away, and
it had been circulated that Sir Crichton had;
died from natural causes. The intense heat hav-l
ing driven most of the residents out of town,
practically I had the square to myself, and I
gave myself up to a brief consideration of the
mystery in which I so suddenly had found my-
self involved.

By what agency had Sir Crichton met his
death? Did Nayland Smith know? I rather
suspected that he did. What was the hidden
significance of the perfumed envelope? Who
was that mysterious personage whom Smith so
evidently dreaded, who had attempted his life,
who, presumably, had murdered Sir Crichton?
Sir Crichton Davey, during the time that he had
held office in India, and during his long term of
service at home, had earned the good will of all,
British and native alike. Who was his secret
enemy? ,

Something touched me lightly on the shoul-
der.

I turned, with my heart fluttering like a
child's. This night's work had imposed a severe
strain even upon my callous nerves.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 19

A girl wrapped in a hooded opera-cloak stood
at my elbow, and, as she glanced up at me, I
thought that I never had seen a face so seduc-
tively lovely nor of so unusual a type. With the
skin of a perfect blonde, she had eyes and lashes
as black as a Creole's, which, together with her
full red lips, told me that this beautiful
stranger, whose touch had so startled me, was
not a child of our northern shores.

" Forgive me," she said, speaking with an odd,
pretty accent, and laying a slim hand, with
jeweled fingers, confidingly upon my arm, "if I
startled you. But — is it true that Sir Crich-
ton Davey has been — murdered?"

I looked into her big, questioning eyes, a harsh
suspicion laboring in my mind, but could read
nothing in their mysterious depths — only I
wondered anew at my questioner's beauty. The
grotesque idea momentarily possessed me that,
were the bloom of her red lips due to art and
not to nature, their kiss would leave — though
not indelibly — just such a mark as I had seen
upon the dead man's hand. But I dismissed
the fantastic notion as bred of the night's hor-
rors, and worthy only of a mediseval legend.
No doubt she was some friend or acquaintance
of Sir Crichton who lived close by.

" I cannot say that he has been murdered,"

20 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

I replied, acting upon the latter supposition, and
seeking to tell her what she asked as gently as
possible. " But he is — "

"Dead?"

I nodded.

She closed her eyes and uttered a low, moan-
ing sound, swaying dizzily. Thinking she was
about to swoon, I threw my arm round her shoul-
der to support her, but she smiled sadly, and
pushed me gently away.

" I am quite well, thank you," she said.

" You are certain? Let me walk with you
until you feel quite sure of yourself."

She shook her head, flashed a rapid glance at
me with her beautiful eyes, and looked away in
a sort of sorrowful embarrassment, for which I
was entirely at a loss to account. Suddenly she
resumed :

" I cannot let my name be mentioned in this
dreadful matter, but — I think I have some in-
formation — for the police. Will you give this
to — whomever you think proper?"

She handed me a sealed envelope, again met
my eyes with one of her dazzling glances, and
hurried away. She had gone no more than ten
or twelve yards, and I still was standing be-
wildered, watching her graceful, retreating fig-
ure, when she turned abruptly and came back.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 21

[Without looking directly at me, but alternately
glancing towards a distant corner of the square
and towards the house of Major-General Platt-
Houston, she made the following extraordinary
request :

" If you would do me a very great service,
for which I always would be grateful," — she
glanced at me with passionate intentness —
" when you have given my message to the proper
person, leave him and do not go near him any
more to-night ! "

Before I could find words to reply she gath-
ered up her cloak and ran. Before I could de-
termine whether or not to follow her (for her
words had aroused anew all my worst suspicions)
she had disappeared! I heard the whir of a
restarted motor at no great distance, and, in
the instant that Nayland Smith came running
down the steps, I knew that I had nodded at my
post.

" Smith ! " I cried as he joined me, " tell me
what we must do ! "

And rapidly I acquainted him with the inci-
dent.

I My friend looked very grave; then a grim
smile crept round his lips.

" She was a big card to play," he said ; " but
lie did not know that I held one to beat it."

22 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

" What ! You know this girl ! Who is she? "

" She is one of the finest weapons in the en-
emy's armory, Petrie. But a woman is a two-
edged sword, and treacherous. To our great
good fortune, she has formed a sudden predilec-
tion, characteristically Oriental, for yourself.
Oh, you may scoff, but it is evident. She was
employed to get this letter placed in my hands.
Give it to me."

I did so.

" She has succeeded. Smell."

He held the envelope under my nose, and, with
a sudden sense of nausea, I recognized the
strange perfume.

" You know what this presaged in Sir Crich*
Jon's case? Can you doubt any longer? She
did not want you to share my fate, Petrie."

" Smith," I said unsteadily, " I have followed
your lead blindly in this horrible business and
have not pressed for an explanation, but I must
insist before I go one step farther upon knowing
what it all means."

" Just a few steps farther," he rejoined ; " as
far as a cab. We are hardly safe here. Oh,
you need not fear shots or knives. The man
whose servants are watching us now scorns to
employ such clumsy, tell-tale weapons."

Only three cabs were on the rank, and, as we

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 23

entered the first, something hissed past my ear.
missed both Smith and me by a miracle, and,
passing over the roof of the taxi, presumably fell
in the enclosed garden occupying the center of
the square.

" What was that? * I cried.

" Get in — quickly ! " Smith rapped back.
" It was attempt number one ! More than that
I cannot say. Don't let the man hear. He has
noticed nothing. Pull up the window on your
side, Petrie, and look out behind. Good ! We've
started."

The cab moved off with a metallic jerk, and I
turned and looked back through the little win-
dow in the rear.

" Someone has got into another cab. It is fol-
lowing ours, I think."

Nayland Smith lay back and laughed un-
mirthfully.

" Petrie," he said, " if I escape alive from this
business I shall know that I bear a charmed
life."

I made no reply, as he pulled out the dilapi-
dated pouch and filled his pipe.

" You have asked me to explain matters," he
continued, " and I will do so to the best of my
ability. You no doubt wonder why a servant of
the British Government, lately stationed in

24 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

Burma, suddenly appears in London, in the char-
acter of a detective. I am here, Petrie — and I
bear credentials from the very highest sources
— because, quite by accident, I came upon a
clew. Following it up, in the ordinary course of
routine, I obtained evidence of the existence and
malignant activity of a certain man. At the
present stage of the case I should not be justi-
fied in terming him the emissary of an Eastern
Power, but I may say that representations are
shortly to be made to that Power's ambassador
in London."

He paused and glanced back towards the pur-
suing cab.

" There is little to fear until we arrive home,"
he said calmly. "Afterwards there is much.
To continue: This man, whether a fanatic or
a duly appointed agent, is, unquestionably, the
most malign and formidable personality exist-
ing in the known world to-day. He is a linguist
who speaks with almost equal facility in any of
the civilized languages, and in most of the bar-
baric. He is an adept in all the arts and sciences
which a great university could teach him. He
also is an adept in certain obscure arts and
sciences which no university of to-day can teach.
He has the brains of any three men of genius.
Petrie, he is a mental giant."

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 25

" You amaze me!" I said.

" As to his mission among men. Why did M.
Jules Furneaux fall dead in a Paris opera house?
Because of heart failure? No! Because his
last speech had shown that he held the key to
the secret of Tongking. What became of the
Grand Duke Stanislaus? Elopement? Sui-
cide? Nothing of the kind. He alone was fully
alive to Russia's growing peril. He alone knew
the truth about Mongolia. Why was Sir Crich-
ton Davey murdered? Because, had the work
he was engaged upon ever seen the light it would
have shown him to be the only living English-
man who understood the importance of the
Tibetan frontiers. I say to you solemnly, Petrie,
that these are but a few. Is there a man who
would arouse the West to a sense of the awaken-
ing of the East, who would teach the deaf to
hear, the blind to see, that the millions only
await their leader? He will die. And this is
only one phase of the devilish campaign. The
others I can merely surmise."

"But, Smith, this is almost incredible!
What perverted genius controls this awful secret
movement?'*

" Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-
shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a
face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long,

26 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him
with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern
race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all
the resources of science past and present, with
all the resources, if you will, of a wealthy govern-
ment— which, however, already has denied all
knowledge of his existence. Imagine that awful
being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-
Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man.'?

Chapter III

I SANK into an arm-chair in my rooms and
gulped down a strong peg of brandy.
" We have been followed here," I said.
"Why did you make no attempt to throw the
pursuers off the track, to have them inter-
cepted? "

Smith laughed.

" Useless, in the first place. Wherever we
went, he would find us. And of what use to ar-
rest his creatures? We could prove nothing
against them. Further, it is evident that an at-
tempt is to be made upon my life to-night — and
by the same means that proved so successful in
the case of poor Sir Crichton."

His square jaw grew truculently prominent,
and he leapt stormily to his feet, shaking his
clenched fists towards the window.

" The villain ! " he cried. " The fiendishly
clever villain! I suspected that Sir Crichton
was next, and I was right. But I came too late,
Petrie! That hits me hard, old man. To think
that I knew and yet failed to save him ! H

28 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

He resumed his seat, smoking hard.

" Fu-Manchu has made the blunder common to
all men of unusual genius," he said. " He has
underrated his adversary. He has not given me
credit for perceiving the meaning of the scented
messages. He has thrown away one powerful
weapon — to get such a message into my hands

— and he thinks that once safe within doors, I
shall sleep, unsuspecting, and die as Sir Crich-
ton died. But without the indiscretion of your
charming friend, I should have known what to
expect when I received her ' information ' —
which, by the way, consists of a blank sheet of
paper."

"Smith," I broke in, "who is she?"
" She is either Fu-Manchu's daughter, his
wife, or his slave. I am inclined to believe the
last, for she has no will but his will, except"

— with a quizzical glance — "in a certain in-
stance."

" How can you jest with some awful thing

— Heaven knows what — hanging over your
head? What is the meaning of these perfumed
envelopes? How did Sir Crichton die? "

" He died of the Zayat Kiss. Ask me what
that is and I reply f I do not know/ The zayats
are the Burmese caravanserais, or rest-houses.
lAlong a certain route — upon which I set eyes,

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 29

for, the first and only time, upon Dr. Fu-Manchu
— travelers who use them sometimes die as Sir
Crichton died, with nothing to show the cause
of death but a little mark upon the neck, face, or
limb, which has earned, in those parts, the title
of the ' Zayat Kiss.' The rest-houses along that
route are shunned now. I have my theory and
I hope to prove it to-night, if I live. It will be
one more broken weapon in his fiendish armory,
and it is thus, and thus only, that I can hope to
crush him. This was my principal reason for
not enlightening Dr. Cleeve. Even walls have
ears where Fu-Manchu is concerned, so I feigned
ignorance of the meaning of the mark, knowing
that he would be almost certain to employ the
same methods upon some other victim. I wanted
an opportunity to study the Zayat Kiss in op-
eration, and I shall have one."

" But the scented envelopes? "

" In the swampy forests of the district I have
referred to a rare species of orchid, almost green,
and with a peculiar scent, is sometimes met
with. I recognized the heavy perfume at once.
I take it that the thing which kills the traveler
is attracted by this orchid. You will notice
that the perfume clings to whatever it touches.
I doubt if it can be washed off in the ordinary
way. After at least one unsuccessful attempt

30 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

to kill Sir Crichton — you recall that lie thought
there was something concealed in his study on
a previous occasion? — Fu-Manchu hit upon the
perfumed envelopes. He may have a supply
of these green orchids in his possession — pos-
sibly to feed the creature."

" What creature? How could any kind of
creature have got into Sir Crichton's room to-
night?"

" You no doubt observed that I examined the
grate of the study. I found a fair quantity of
fallen soot. I at once assumed, since it ap-
peared to be the only means of entrance, that
something has been dropped down ; and I took it
for granted that the thing, whatever it was,
must still be concealed either in the study or
in the library. But when I had obtained the
evidence of the groom, Wills, I perceived that
the cry from the lane or from the park was a
signal. I noted that the movements of any-
one seated at the study table were visible, in
shadow, on the blind, and that the study occu-
pied the corner of a two-storied wing and, there-
fore, had a short chimney. What did the signal
mean? That Sir Crichton had leaped up from
his chair, and either had received the Zayat Kiss
or had seen the thing which someone on the
roof had lowered down the straight chimney.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 31

It was the signal to withdraw that deadly thing.
By means of the iron stairway at the rear of
Major-General Piatt-Houston's, I quite easily
gained access to the roof above Sir Crichton's
study — and I found this."

Out from his pocket Nayland Smith drew a
tangled piece of silk, mixed up with which were
a brass ring and a number of unusually large-
sized split-shot, nipped on in the manner usual
on a fishing-line.

^ " My theory proven," he resumed. « Not an-
ticipating a search on the roof, they had been
careless. This was to weight the line and to
prevent the creature clinging to the walls of
the chimney. Directly it had dropped in the
grate, however, by means of this ring I assume
that the weighted line was withdrawn, and the
thing was only held by one slender thread, which
sufficed, though, to draw it back again when it
had done its work. It might have got tangled,
of course, but they reckoned on its making
straight up the carved leg of the writing-table
for the prepared envelope. From there to the
hand of Sir Crichton — which, from having
touched the envelope, would also be scented with
the perfume — was a certain move."

" My God ! How horrible ! " I exclaimed, and
glanced apprehensively into the dusky shadows

32 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

of the room. " What is your theory respecting
this creature — what shape, what color — %V

" It is something that moves rapidly and si-
lently. I will venture no more at present, but
I think it works in the dark. The study was
dark, remember, save for the bright patch be*
neath the reading-lamp. I have observed that
the rear of this house is ivy-covered right up to
and above your bedroom. Let us make osten-
tatious preparations to retire, and I think we
may rely upon Fu-Manchu's servants to attempt
my removal, at any rate — if not yours."

" But, my dear fellow, it is a climb of thirty-
five feet at the very least."

" You remember the cry in the back lane?
It suggested something to me, and I tested my
idea — successfully. It was the cry of a da-
coit. Oh, dacoity, though quiescent, is by no
means extinct. Fu-Manchu has dacoits in his
train, and probably it is one who operates the
Zayat Kiss, since it was a dacoit who watched
the window of the study this evening. To such
a man an ivy-covered wall is a grand staircase."

The horrible events that followed are punctu-
ated, in my mind, by the striking of a distant
clock. It is singular how trivialities thus as-
sert themselves in moments of high tension. I
will proceed, then, by these punctuations, to the

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 33

coming of the horror that it was written we
should encounter.

The clock across the common struck two.

Having removed all traces of the scent of the
orchid from our hands with a solution of am-
monia, Smith and I had followed the programme
laid down. It was an easy matter to reach the
rear of the house, by simply climbing a fence,
and we did not doubt that, seeing the light go
out in the front, our unseen watcher would pro-
ceed to the back.

The room was a large one, and we had made
up my camp-bed at one end, stuffing odds and
ends under the clothes to lend the appearance of
a sleeper, which device we also had adopted in
the case of the larger bed. The perfumed en-
velope lay upon a little coffee table in the center
of the floor, and Smith, with an electric pocket
lamp, a revolver, and a brassey beside him, sat
on cushions in the shadow of the wardrobe. I
occupied a post between the windows.

No unusual sound, so far, had disturbed the
stillness of the night. Save for the muffled
throb of the rare all-night cars passing the front
of the house, our vigil had been a silent one.
The full moon had painted about the floor weird
shadows of the clustering ivy, spreading the de-
sign gradually from the door, across the room,

34 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

past the little table where the envelope lay, and
finally to the foot of the bed.

The distant clock struck a quarter-past two.

A slight breeze stirred the ivy, and a new
shadow added itself to the extreme edge of the
moon's design.

Something rose, inch by inch, above the sill
of the westerly window. I could see only its
shadow, but a sharp, sibilant breath from Smith
told me that he, from his post, could see the
cause of the shadow.

Every nerve in my body seemed to be strung
tensely. I was icy cold, expectant, and pre-
pared for whatever horror was upon us.

The shadow became stationary. The dacoit
was studying the interior of the room.

Then it suddenly lengthened, and, craning my
head to the left, I saw a lithe, black-clad form,
surmounted by a yellow face, sketchy in the
moonlight, pressed against the window-panes!

One thin, brown hand appeared over the edge
of the lowered sash, which it grasped — and then
another. The man made absolutely no sound
whatever. The second hand disappeared — and
reappeared. It held a small, square box.

There was a very faint click.

The dacoit swung himself below the window
with the agility of an ape, as, with a dull,

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 35

muffled thud, something dropped upon the car-
pet!

" Stand still, for your life ! " came Smith's
voice, high-pitched.

A beam of white leaped out across the room
and played full upon the coffee-table in the
center.

Prepared as I was for something horrible, I
know that I paled at sight of the thing that
was running round the edge of the envelope.

It was an insect, full six inches long, and of
a vivid, venomous, red color! It had something
of the appearance of a great ant, with its long,
quivering antennae and its febrile, horrible vi-
tality ; but it was proportionately longer of body
and smaller of head, and had numberless rapidly
moving legs. In *hort, it was a giant centipede,
apparently of the scolopendra group, but of a
form quite new to me.

These things I realized in one breathless
instant ; in the next — Smith had dashed the
thing's poisonous life out with one straight, true
blow of the golf club !

I leaped to the window and threw it widely
open, feeling a silk thread brush my hand as I
did so. A black shape was dropping, with in-
credible agility from branch to branch of the ivy,
and, without once offering a mark for a revolver-

36 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

shot, it merged into the shadows beneath the
trees of the garden.

As I turned and switched on the light Nayland
Smith dropped limply into a chair, leaning his
head upon his hands. Even that grim courage
had been tried sorely.

" Never mind the dacoit, Petrie," he said.
" Nemesis will know where to find him. We
know now what causes the mark of the Zayat
Kiss. Therefore science is richer for our first
brush with the enemy, and the enemy is poorer —
unless he has any more unclassified centipedes.
I understand now something that has been puz-
zling me since I heard of it — Sir Crichton's
stifled cry. When we remember that he was al-
most past speech, it is reasonable to suppose that
his cry was not ' The red hand ! ' but ' The red
ant! ' Petrie, to think that I failed, by less than
an hour, to save him from such an end ! "

Chapter IV

£ J^riHE body of a lascar, dressed in the man-
ner usual on the P. & O. boats, was re-
covered from the Thames off Tilbury

by the river police at six A. M. this morning. It is

supposed that the man met with an accident in

leaving his ship."

Nayland Smith passed me the evening paper
and pointed to the above paragraph.

" For ' lascar ? read * dacoit,' " he said. " Our
visitor, who came by way of the ivy, fortunately
for us, failed to follow his instructions. Also,
he lost the centipede and left a clew behind him.
Dr. Fu-Manchu does not overlook such lapses."

It was a sidelight upon the character of the
awful being with whom we had to deal. My
very soul recoiled from bare consideration of
the fate that would be ours if ever we fell into
his hands.

The telephone bell rang. I went out and
found that Inspector Weymouth of New Scotland
Yard had called us up.

38 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" Will Mr. Nayland Smith please come to tlie
Wapping River Police Station at once," was the
message. p

Peaceful interludes were few enough through-
out that wild pursuit.

" It is certainly something important/' said
my friend ; " and, if Fu-Manchu is at the bottom
of it — as we must presume him to be — probably
something ghastly."

A brief survey of the time-tables showed us
that there were no trains to serve our haste.
We accordingly chartered a cab and proceeded
east.

Smith, throughout the journey, talked enter-
tainingly about his work in Burma. Of intent,
I think, he avoided any reference to the circum-
stances which first had brought him in contact
with the sinister genius of the Yellow Movement.
His talk was rather of the sunshine of the East
than of its shadows.

But the drive concluded — and all too soon.
In a silence which neither of us seemed disposed
to break, we entered the police depot, and
followed an officer who received us, into the room
where Weymouth waited.

The inspector greeted us briefly, nodding
toward the table.

" Poor Oadby, the most promising lad at the

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 3D

Yard," he said; and his usually gruff voice had
softened strangely.

Smith struck his right fist into the palm of his
left hand and swore under his breath, striding
up and down the neat little room. No one spoke
for a moment, and in the silence I could hear the
whispering of the Thames outside — of the
Thames which had so many strange secrets to
tell, and now was burdened with another.

The body lay prone upon the deal table — this
latest of the river's dead — dressed in rough
sailor garb, and, to all outward seeming, a sea-
man of nondescript nationality — such as i#
no stranger in Wapping and Shadwell. Hi*
dark, curly hair clung clammily about the brown
forehead; his skin was stained, they told me.
He wore a gold ring in one ear, and three fingers
of the left hand were missing.

" It was almost the same with Mason." Tho
river police inspector was speaking. "A week,
ago, on a Wednesday, he went off in his own tim«
on some funny business down St. George's way
— and Thursday night the ten-o'clock boat got
the grapnel on him off Hanover Hole. His first
two fingers on the right hand were clean gone,
and his left hand was mutilated frightfully."

He paused and glanced at Smith.

"That lascar, too," he continued, "that you

40 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

came down to see, sir; you remember his hands? "

Smith nodded.

" He was not a lascar," he said shortly. " He
was a dacoit."

Silence fell again.

I turned to the array of objects lying on thef
table — those which had been found in Cadby's
clothing. None of them were noteworthy, ex-
cept that which had been found thrust into the
loose neck of his shirt. This last it was which
had led the police to send for Nayland Smith,
for it constituted the first clew which had come
to light pointing to the authors of these mys-
terious tragedies.

It was a Chinese pigtail. That alone was
sufficiently remarkable; but it was rendered
more so by the fact that the plaited queue was a
false one, being attached to a most ingenious
bald wig.

" You're sure it wasn't part of a Chinese make-
up?" questioned Weymouth, his eye on the
strange relic. " Cadby was clever at disguise."

Smith snatched the wig from my hands with
a certain irritation, and tried to fit it on the dead
detective.

" Too small by inches ! " he jerked. " And
look how it's padded in the crown. This thing
was made for a most abnormal head."

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 41

He threw it down, and fell to pacing the room
again.

"Where did you find him — exactly?" he
asked.

" Limehouse Reach — under Commercial Dock
Pier — exactly an hour ago."

"And you last saw him at eight o'clock last
night?" — to Weymouth.

" Eight to a quarter past."

" You think he has been dead nearly twenty-
four hours, Petrie? "

" Roughly, twenty-four hours," I replied.

" Then, we know that he was on the track of
the Fu-Manchu group, that he followed up some
clew which led him to the neighborhood of old
Eatcliff Highway, and that he died the same
night. You are sure that is where he was
going? "

" Yes," said Weymouth. u He was jealous of
giving anything away, poor chap ; it meant a big
lift for him if he pulled the case off. But he
gave me to understand that he expected to spend
last night in that district. He left the Yard
about eight, as I've said, to go to his rooms, and
dress for the job."

" Did he keep any record of his cases? "

" Of course ! He was most particular. Cadby
was a man with ambitions, sir! You'll want to

42 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

see his book. Wait while I get his address; it's
somewhere in Brixton."

He went to the telephone, and Inspector Ry-
man covered up the dead man's face.

Nayland Smith was palpably excited.

" He almost succeeded where we have failed,
iPetrie," he said. " There is no doubt in my
mind that he was hot on the track of Fu-Manchu !
Poor Mason had probably blundered on the scent,
too, and he met with a similar fate. Without
other evidence, the fact that they both died in the
same way as the dacoit would be conclusive, for
we know that Fu-Manchu killed the dacoit ! "

" What is the meaning of the mutilated hands,
Smith?"

" God knows ! Cadby's death was from drown-
ing, you say? "

" There are no other marks of violence."

" But he was a very strong swimmer, Doctor,"
interrupted Inspector Ryman. " Why, he pulled
off the quarter-mile championship at the Crystal
Palace last year! Cadby wasn't a man easy to
drown. And as for Mason, he was an R.N.R.,
and like a fish in the water ! "

Smith shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

" Let us hope that one day we shall know how
they died," he said simply.

kWeymouth returned from the telephone.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 43

" The address is No. — Cold Harbor Lane/' he
reported. " I shall not be able to come along,
but you can't miss it; it's close by the Brixton
Police Station. There's no family, fortunately;
he was quite alone in the world. His case-book
isn't in the American desk, which you'll find in
Ms sitting-room; it's in the cupboard in the cor-
ner — top shelf. Here are his keys, all intact.
I think this is the cupboard key."

Smith nodded.

" Come on, Petrie," he said. " We haven't a
second to waste."

Our cab was waiting, and in a few seconds we
were speeding along Wapping High Street. We
had. gone no more than a few hundred yards, I
think, when Smith suddenly slapped his open
hand down on his knee.

" That pigtail ! " he cried. " I have left it be-
hind ! We must have it, Petrie ! Stop ! Stop I "

The cab was pulled up, and Smith alighted.

" Don't wait for me," he directed hurriedly.
" Here, take Weymouth's card. Remember
where he said the book was? It's all we want.
Come straight on to Scotland Yard and meet me
there."

"But, Smith," I protested, "a few minutes
can make no difference ! "

" Can't it ! " he snapped. " Do you suppose

U THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

Fu-Manchu is going to leave evidence like that
lying about? It's a thousand to one he has it al-
ready, but there is just a bare chance."

It was a new aspect of the situation and one
that afforded no room for comment ; and so lost
in thought did I become that the cab was out-
side the house for which I was bound ere I real-
ized that we had quitted the purlieus of Wap-
ping. Yet I had had leisure to review the whole
troop of events which had crowded my life since
the return of Nayland Smith from Burma.
Mentally, I had looked again upon the dead Sir
Crichton Davey, and with Smith had waited in
the dark for the dreadful thing that had killed
him. Now, with those remorseless memories
jostling in my mind, I was entering the house of
Fu-Manchu's last victim, and the shadow of that
giant evil seemed to lie upon it like a palpable
cloud.

Cadby's old landlady greeted me with a queer
mixture of fear and embarrassment in her man-
ner.

" I am Dr. Petrie," I said, " and I regret that
I bring bad news respecting Mr. Cadby."

" Oh, sir ! " she cried. " Don't tell me that
anything has happened to him ! " And divin-
ing something of the mission on which I was
come, for such sad duty often falls to the lot of

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 45

the medical man : " Oh, the poor, brave lad ! "
Indeed, I respected the dead man's memory
more than ever from that hour, since the sorrow
of the worthy old soul was quite pathetic, and
spoke eloquently for the unhappy cause of it.

" There was a terrible wailing at the back of the
house last night, Doctor, and I heard it again
to-night, a second before you knocked. Poor
lad ! It was the same when his mother died."

At the moment I paid little attention to her
words, for such beliefs are common, unfortu-
nately ; but when she was sufficiently composed I
went on to explain what I thought necessary.
And now the old lady's embarrassment took pre-
cedence of her sorrow, and presently the truth
came out :

" There's a — young lady — in his rooms, sir."
I started. This might mean little or might
mean much.

" She came and waited for him last night, Doc-
tor — from ten until half-past — and this morn-
ing again. She came the third time about an
hour ago, and has been upstairs since."
" Do you know her, Mrs. Dolan? "
Mrs. Dolan grew embarrassed again.
" Well, Doctor," she said, wiping her eyes the
while, " I do. And God knows he was a good
lad, and I like a mother to him ; but she is not the

46 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

girl I should have liked a son of mine to take up
with."

At any other time, this would have been
amusing; now, it might be serious. Mrs. Dolan's
account of the wailing became suddenly signifi-
cant, for perhaps it meant that one of Fu-
Manchu's dacoit followers was watching the
house, to give warning of any stranger's ap-
proach! Warning to whom? It was unlikely
that I should forget the dark eyes of another of
Fu-Manchu's servants. Was that lure of men
even now in the house, completing her evil work?

" I should never have allowed her in his
rooms — " began Mrs. Dolan again. Then there
was an interruption.

A soft rustling reached my ears — intimately
feminine. The girl was stealing down !

I leaped out into the hall, and she turned and
fled blindly before me — back up the stairs!
Taking three steps at a time, I followed her,
bounded into the room above almost at her heels,
and stood with my back to the door.

She cowered against the desk by the window,

| a slim figure in a clinging silk gown, which alone

'explained Mrs. Dolan's distrust. The gaslight

was turned very low, and her hat shadowed her

face, but could not hide its startling beauty,

could not mar the brilliancy of the skin, nor dim

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 47

the wonderful eyes of this modern Delilah. For
it was she !

" So I came in time," I said grimly, and turned
the key in the lock.

" Oh ! " she panted at that, and stood facing
me, leaning back with her jewel-laden hands
clutching the desk edge.

" Give me whatever you have removed from
here," I said sternly, "and then prepare to ac-
company me."

She took a step forward, her eyes wide with
fear, her lips parted.

" I have taken nothing," she said. Her breast
was heaving tumultuously. " Oh, let me go !
Please, let me go ! " And impulsively she threw
herself forward, pressing clasped hands against
my shoulder and looking up into my face with
passionate, pleading eyes.

It is with some shame that I confess how her
charm enveloped me like a magic cloud. Unfa-
miliar with the complex Oriental temperament,
I had laughed at Nayland Smith when he had
spoken of this girl's infatuation. " Love in the
East," he had said, " is like the conjurer's mango-
jtree; it is born, grows and flowers at the touch of
a hand." Now, in those pleading eyes I read
confirmation of his words. Her clothes or her
hair exhaled a faint perfume. Like all Fu-

48 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

Manchu's servants, she was perfectly chosen for
her peculiar duties. Her beauty was wholly in-
toxicating.

But I thrust her away.

" You have no claim to mercy," I said. " Do
not count upon any. What have you taken from
here?"

She grasped the lapels of my coat.

" I will tell you all I can — all I dare," she
panted eagerly, fearfully. " I should know how
to deal with your friend, but with you I am lost !
If you could only understand you would not be
so cruel." Her slight accent added charm to the
musical voice. " I am not free, as your English
women are. What I do I must do, for it is the
will of my master, and I am only a slave. Ah,
you are not a man if you can give me to the po-
lice. You have no heart if you can forget that
I tried to save you once."

I had feared that plea, for, in her own Oriental
fashion, she certainly had tried to save me from
a deadly peril once — at the expense of my
friend. But I had feared the plea, for I did not
know how to meet it. How could I give her up,
perhaps to stand her trial for murder? And
now I fell silent, and she saw why I was silent.

" I may deserve no mercy ; I may be even as
bad as you think ; but what have you to do with

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 49

the police? It is not your work to hound a
woman to death. Could you ever look another
woman in the eyes — one that you loved, and
know that she trusted you — if you had done
such a thing? Ah, I have no friend in all the
wrorld, or I should not be here. Do not be my
enemy, my judge, and make me worse than I am ;
be my friend, and save me — from him" The
tremulous lips were close to mine, her breath
fanned my cheek. " Have mercy on me."

At that moment I honestly would have given
half of my worldly possessions to have been
spared the decision which I knew I must come to.
After all, what proof had I that she was a willing
accomplice of Dr. Fu-Manchu? Furthermore,
she was an Oriental, and her code must neces-
sarily be different from mine. Irreconcilable as
the thing may be with Western ideas, Nayland
Smith had really told me that he believed the
girl to be a slave. Then there remained that
other reason why I loathed the idea of becoming
her captor. It was almost tantamount to be-
trayal! Must I soil my hands with such work?

Thus — I suppose — her seductive beauty ar-
gued against my sense of right. The jeweled
fingers grasped my shoulders nervously, and her
slim body quivered against mine as she watched
me, with all her soul in her eyes, in an abandon-

SO THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

ment of pleading despair. Then I remembered
the fate of the man in whose room we stood.

" You lured Cadby to his death," I said, and
shook her off.

" No, no ! " she cried wildly, clutching at me.
" No, I swear by the holy name I did not ! I did {
not! I watched him, spied upon him — yes!
But, listen: it was because he would not be
warned that he met his death. I could not save
him ! Ah, I am not so bad as that. I will tell
you. I have taken his notebook and torn out the
last pages and burnt them. Look! in the grate.
The book was too big to steal away. I came
twice and could not find it. There, will you let
me go? "

" If you will tell me where and how to seize
Dr. Fu-Manchu — yes."

Her hands dropped and she took a backward
step. A new terror was to be read in her face.

" I dare not! I dare not ! "

" Then you would — if you dared? "

She was watching me intently.

" Not if you would go to find him," she said.

And, with all that I thought her to be, the
stern servant of justice that I would have had
myself, I felt the hot blood leap to my cheek at
all which the words implied. She grasped my
arm.

THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 51

" Could you hide me from him if I came to you,
and told you all I know? "

"The authorities — "

" Ah ! " Her expression changed. " They can
put me on the rack if they choose, but never one
word would I speak — never one little word."

She threw up her head scornfully. Then the
proud glance softened again.

" But I will speak for you."

Closer she came, and closer, until she could
whisper in my ear.

" Hide me from your police, from Mm, from
everybody, and I will no longer be his slave."

My heart was beating with painful rapidity.
I had not counted on this warring with a woman ;
moreover, it was harder than I could have dreamt
of. For some time I had been aware that by the
charm of her personality and the art of her
pleading she had brought me down from my judg-
ment seat — had made it all but impossible for
me to give her up to justice. Now, I was dis-
armed— but in a quandary. What should I
do? What could I do? I turned away from her
and walked to the hearth, in which some paper
ash lay and yet emitted a faint smell.

Not more than ten seconds elapsed, I am con-
fident, from the time that I stepped across the
room until I glanced back. But she had gone !

52 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

As I leapt to the door the key turned gently
from the outside. *

"Ma 'alesh!" came her soft whisper; "but I
am afraid to trust you — yet. Be comforted, for
there is one near who would have killed you had
I wished it. Kemember, I will come to you when-
ever you will take me and hide me."

Light footsteps pattered down the stairs. I
heard a stifled cry from Mrs. Dolan as the mys-
terious visitor ran past her. The front door
opened and closed.

Chapter V

4 6 ^T HEN-YAN'S is a dope-shop in one of
^^ the burrows off the old Eatcliff
Highway," said Inspector Weymouth.
" ' Singapore Charlie's/ they call it. It's a center
for some of the Chinese societies, I believe, but
all sorts of opium-smokers use it. There have
never been any complaints that I know of. T
don't understand this."

We stood in his room at New Scotland Yard,
bending over a sheet of foolscap upon which were
arranged some burned fragments from poor
Cadby's grate, for so hurriedly had the girl done
her work that combustion had not been complete.

"What do we make of this?" said Smith.
uc . . . Hunchback . . . lascar went up . . .
unlike others . . . not return . . . till Shen-
Yan ' (there is no doubt about the name, I think)
1 turned me out . . . booming sound . . . lascar
in . . . mortuary I could ident . . . not for
days, or suspici . . . Tuesday night in a different
make . . . snatch . . . pigtail . . .' "

" The pigtail again ! " rapped Weymouth.

54 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

" She evidently burned the torn-out pages all
together," continued Smith. " They lay flat,
and this was in the middle. I see the hand of
retributive justice in that, Inspector. Now we
have a reference to a hunchback, and what fol-
lows amounts to this: A lascar (amongst
several other persons) went up somewhere-—
presumably upstairs — at Shen-Yan's, and did
not come down again. Cadby, who was there dis-
guised, noted a booming sound. Later, he identi-
fied the lascar in some mortuary. We have no
means of fixing the date of this visit to Shen-
Yan's, but I feel inclined to put down the ' lascar 9
as the dacoit who was murdered by Fu-Manchu !
It is sheer supposition, however. But that Cadby
meant to pay another visit to the place in a dif-
ferent c make-up ' or disguise, is evident, and that
the Tuesday night proposed was last night is a
reasonable deduction. The reference to a pigtail
is principally interesting because of what was
found on Cadby's body."

Inspector Weymouth nodded affirmatively, and
Smith glanced at his watch.

i " Exactly ten -twenty-three," he said. " I will
trouble you, Inspector, for the freedom of your
fancy wardrobe. There is time to spend an hour
in the company of Shen-Yan's opium friends."

Weymouth raised his eyebrows.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 55'

"It might be risky. What about an official
visit?"

Nayland Smith laughed.

" Worse than useless ! By your own showing,
the place is open to inspection. No ; guile against
guile! We are dealing with a Chinaman, with
the incarnate essence of Eastern subtlety, with
the most stupendous genius that the modern
Orient has produced."

"I don't believe in disguises," said Wey-
mouth, with a certain truculence. " It's mostly
played out, that game, and generally leads to
failure. Still, if you're determined, sir, there's
an end of it. Foster will make your face up.
What disguise do you propose to adopt? "

"A sort of Dago seaman, I think; something
like poor Cadby. I can rely on my knowledge
of the brutes, if I am sure of my disguise."

" You are forgetting me, Smith," I said.

He turned to me quickly.

" Petrie," he replied, " it is my business, un-
fortunately, but it is no sort of hobby."

" You mean that you can no longer rely upon
me? " I said angrily.

Smith grasped my hand, and met my rather
frigid stare with a look of real concern on his
gaunt, bronzed face.

" My dear old chap," he answered, " that was

56 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

really unkind. You know that I meant some*
thing totally different."

" It's all right, Smith," I said, immediately
ashamed of my choler, and wrung his hand
heartily. " I can pretend to smoke opium as
well as another. I shall be going, too, Inspec-
tor."

As a result of this little passage of words,
some twenty minutes later two dangerous-look-
ing seafaring ruffians entered a waiting cab, ac-
companied by Inspector Weymouth, and were
driven off into the wilderness of London's night.
In this theatrical business there was, to my mind,
something ridiculous — almost childish — and I
could have laughed heartily had it not been that
grim tragedy lurked so near to farce.

The mere recollection that somewhere at our
journey's end Fu-Manchu awaited us was suffix
cient to sober my reflections — Fu-Manchu, who,
with all the powers represented by Nayland
Smith pitted against him, pursued his dark
schemes triumphantly, and lurked in hiding with-
in this very area which was so sedulously pa-
trolled— Fu-Manchu, whom I had never seen,
but whose name stood for horrors indefinable!
[Perhaps I was destined to meet the terrible Chin-
ese doctor to-night.

I ceased to pursue a train of thought which

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 57

promised to lead to morbid depths, and directed
my attention to what Smith was saying.

"We will drop down from Wapping and re-
connoiter, as you say the place is close to the
riverside. Then you can put us ashore some-
where below. Ryman can keep the launch close
to the back of the premises, and your fellows
will be hanging about near the front, near enough
to hear the whistle."

"Yes," assented Weymouth; "I've arranged
for that. If you are suspected, you shall give the
alarm?"

"I don't know," said Smith thoughtfully.
" Even in that event I might wait awhile."

" Don't wait too long," advised the Inspector.
" We shouldn't be much wiser if your next ap-
pearance was on the end of a grapnel, somewhere
down Greenwich Reach, with half your fingers
missing."

The cab pulled up outside the river police de-
pot, and Smith and I entered without delay,
four shabby-looking fellows who had been seated
in the office springing up to salute the Inspector,
who followed us in.

"Guthrie and Lisle," he said briskly, "get
along and find a dark corner which commands
the door of Singapore Charlie's off the old High-
way. You look the dirtiest of the troupe,

58 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

Guthrie ; you might drop asleep on the pavement,
and Lisle can argue with you about getting home.
Don't move till you hear the whistle inside or
have my orders, and note everybody that goes
in and comes out. You other two belong to this
division? "

The C.I.D. men having departed, the remain-
ing pair saluted again.

" Well, you're on special duty to-night. You've
been prompt, but don't stick your chests out so
much. Do you know of a back way to Shen-
Yan's? "

The men looked at one another, and both
shook their heads.

" There's an empty shop nearly opposite, sir,"
replied one of them. " I know a broken window
at the back where we could climb in. Then we
could get through to the front and watch from
there."

" Good ! " cried the Inspector. " See you are
not spotted, though ; and if you hear the whistle,
don't mind doing a bit of damage, but be inside
Shen-Yan's like lightning. Otherwise, wait for
orders."

Inspector Ryman came in, glancing at the
clock.

" Launch is waiting," he said.

u Right," replied Smith thoughtfully. " I am

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 59

half afraid, though, that the recent alarms may
have scared our quarry — your man, Mason, and
then Cadby. Against which we have that, so
far as he is likely to know, there has been no
clew pointing to this opium den. Remember, he
thinks Cadby's notes are destroyed."

" The wThole business is an utter mystery to
me," confessed Ryman. " I'm told that there's
some dangerous Chinese devil hiding somewhere
in London, and that you expect to find him at
Shen-Yan's. Supposing he uses that place, which
is possible, how do you know he's there to-night? "

" I don't," said Smith ; " but it is the first clew
we have had pointing to one of his haunts, and
time means precious lives where Dr. Fu-Manchu
is concerned."

" Who is he, sir, exactly, this Dr. Fu-Manchu? "

" I have only the vaguest idea, Inspector ; but
he is no ordinary criminal. He is the greatest
genius which the powers of evil have put on earth
for centuries. He has the backing of a political
group whose wealth is enormous, and his mission
in Europe is to pave the way! Do you follow
me? He is the advance-agent of a movement so
epoch-making that not one Britisher, and not one
American, in fifty thousand has ever dreamed of
it."

Ryman stared, but made no reply, and we went

60 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

out, passing down to the breakwater and board-
ing the waiting launch. With her crew of three,
the party numbered seven that swung out into
the Pool, and, clearing the pier, drew in again
and hugged the murky shore.

The night had been clear enough hitherto, but
now came scudding rainbanks to curtain the
crescent moon, and anon to unveil her again and
show the muddy swirls about us. The view was
not extensive from the launch. Sometimes a
deepening of the near shadows would tell of a
moored barge, or lights high above our heads
mark the deck of a large vessel. In the floods of
moonlight gaunt shapes towered above ; in the en-
suing darkness only the oily glitter of the tide
occupied the foreground of the night-piece.

The Surrey shore was a broken wall of black-
ness, patched with lights about which moved
hazy suggestions of human activity. The bank
we were following offered a prospect even more
gloomy — - a dense, dark mass, amid which, some-
times, mysterious half-tones told of a dock gate,
or sudden high lights leapt flaring to the eye.

Then, out of the mystery ahead, a green light
grew and crept down upon us. A giant shape
loomed up, and frowned crushingly upon the
little craft. A blaze of light, the jangle of a bell,
and it was past. We were dancing in the wash

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 61

of one of the Scotch steamers, and the murk had
fallen again.

Discords of remote activity rose above the more
intimate throbbing of our screw, and we seemed
a pigmy company floating past the workshops
of Brobdingnagian toilers. The chill of the
near water communicated itself to me, and I felt
the protection of my shabby garments inadequate
against it.

Far over on the Surrey shore a blue light —
vaporous, mysterious — flicked translucent
tongues against the night's curtain. It was a
weird, elusive flame, leaping, wavering, magically
changing from blue to a yellowed violet, rising,
falling.

" Only a gasworks," came Smith's voice, and I
knew that he, too, had been watching those el-
fin fires. " But it always reminds me of a Mexi-
can teocalli, and the altar of sacrifice."

The simile was apt, but gruesome. I thought
of Dr. Fu-Manchu and the severed fingers, and
could not repress a shudder.

" On your left, past the wooden pier ! Not
where the lamp is — beyond that; next to the
dark, square building — Shen-Yan's."

It was Inspector Ryman speaking.

" Drop us somewhere handy, then," replied
Smith, "and lie close in, with your ears wide

62 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

open. We may have to run for it, so don't go
far away."

From the tone of his voice I knew that the
night mystery of the Thames had claimed at
least one other victim.

" Dead slow," came Ryman's order. " We'll
put in to the Stone Stairs."

Chapter VI

A SEEMINGLY drunken voice was dron-
ing from a neighboring alleyway as
Smith lurched in hulking fashion to the.
door of a little shop above which, crudely
painted, were the words:

" SHEN-YAN, Barber."

I shuffled along behind him, and had time to
note the box of studs, German shaving tackle and
rolls of twist which lay untidily in the window
ere Smith kicked the door open, clattered down
three wooden steps, and pulled himself up with
a jerk, seizing my arm for support.

We stood in a bare and very dirty room, which
could only claim kinship with a civilized shaving-
saloon by virtue of the grimy towel thrown
across the back of the solitary chair. A Yid-
dish theatrical bill of some kind, illustrated,
adorned one of the walls, and another bill, in
what may have been Chinese, completed the dec-
orations. From behind a curtain heavily bro-
caded with filth a little Chinaman appeared,
dressed in a loose smock, black trousers and

64 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

thick-soled slippers, and, advancing, shook his
head vigorously.

" No shavee — no shavee," he chattered,
simian fashion, squinting from one to the other
of us with his twinkling eyes. " Too late !
Shuttee shop ! "

" Don't you come none of it wi' me ! " roared
Smith, in a voice of amazing gruffness, and shook
an artificially dirtied fist under the Chinaman's
nose. " Get inside and gimme an' my mate a
couple o' pipes. Smokee pipe, you yellow scum
— savvy? "

My friend bent forward and glared into the
other's eyes with a vindictiveness that amazed
me, unfamiliar as I was with this form of gentle
persuasion.

" Kop 'old o' that," he said, and thrust a coin
into the Chinaman's yellow paw. " Keep me
waitin' an' I'll pull the dam' shop down, Charlie.
You can lay to it."

" No hab got pipee — " began the other.

Smith raised his fist, and Yan capitulated.

" Allee lightee," he said. " Full up — no loom.
You come see."

He dived behind the dirty curtain, Smith and I
following, and ran up a dark stair. The next
moment I found myself in an atmosphere which
was literally poisonous. It was all but un-

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 65

breathable, being loaded with, opium fumes.
Never before had I experienced anything like it.
Every breath was an effort. A tin oil-lamp on
a box in the middle of the floor dimly illumi-
nated the horrible place, about the walls of which
ten or twelve bunks were ranged and all of them
occupied. Most of the occupants were lying mo-
tionless, but one or two were squatting in their
bunks noisily sucking at the little metal pipes.
These had not yet attained to the opium-smoker's
Nirvana.

" No loom — samee tella you," said Shen-Yan,
complacently testing Smith's shilling with his
yellow, decayed teeth.

Smith walked to a corner and dropped cross-
legged, on the floor, pulling me down with him.

" Two pipe quick," he said. " Plenty room.
Two piecee pipe — or plenty heap trouble."

A dreary voice from one of the bunks came :

" Give 'im a pipe, Charlie, curse yer ! an' stop
'is palaver."

Yan performed a curious little shrug, rather
of the back than of the shoulders, and shuffled
to the box which bore the smoky lamp. Holding
a needle in the flame, he dipped it, when red-hot,
into an old cocoa tin, and withdrew it with a
bead of opium adhering to the end. Slowly
roasting this over the lamp, he dropped it into

66 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

the bowl of the metal pipe which he held ready,
where it burned with a spirituous blue flame.

" Pass it over," said Smith huskily, and rose
on his knees with the assumed eagerness of a
slave to the drug.

Yan handed him the pipe, which he promptly
put to his lips, and prepared another for me.

"Whatever you do, don't inhale any," came
Smith's whispered injunction.

It was with a sense of nausea greater even
than that occasioned by the disgusting atmos-
phere of the den that I took the pipe and pre-
tended to smoke. Taking my cue from my
friend, I allowed my head gradually to sink
lower and lower, until, within a few minutes, I
sprawled sideways on the floor, Smith lying close
beside me.

" The ship's sinkin'," droned a voice from one
of the bunks. " Look at the rats."

Yan had noiselessly withdrawn, and I ex-
perienced a curious sense of isolation from my fel-
lows— from the whole of the Western world.
My throat was parched with the fumes, my head
ached. The vicious atmosphere seemed contami-
nating. I was as one dropped —

B Somewhere East of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
And there ain't no Ten Commandments and a man can raise
a thirst.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 67

Smith began to whisper softly.

"We have carried it through successfully so
far," he said. " I don't know if you have ob-
served it, but there is a stair just behind you,
half concealed by a ragged curtain. We are
near that, and well in the dark. I have seen
nothing suspicious so far — or nothing much.
But if there was anything going forward it
would no doubt be delayed until we new arrivals
were well doped. S-sh! "

He pressed my arm to emphasize the warning.
Through my half-closed eyes I perceived a
shadowy form near the curtain to which he had
referred. I lay like a log, but my muscles were
tensed nervously.

The shadow materialized as the figure moved
forward into the room with a curiously lithe
movement.

The smoky lamp in the middle of the place af-
forded scant illumination, serving only to indi-
cate sprawling shapes — here an extended hand,
brown or yellow, there a sketchy, corpse-like face;
whilst from all about rose obscene sighings and
murmurings in far-away voices — an uncanny,
animal chorus. It was like a glimpse of the In-
ferno seen by some Chinese Dante. But so close
to us stood the newcomer that I was able to
make out a ghastly parchment face, with small,

68 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHTJ

oblique eyes, and a misshapen head crowned with
a coiled pigtail, surmounting a slight, hunched
body. There was something unnatural, inhu-
man, about that masklike face, and something
repulsive in the bent shape and the long, yellow
hands clasped one upon the other.

Fu-Manchu, from Smith's account, in no way
resembled this crouching apparition with the
death's-head countenance and lithe movements;
but an instinct of some kind told me that
we were on the right scent — that this was
one of the doctor's servants. How I came to
that conclusion, I cannot explain ; but with no
doubt in my mind that this was a member of the
formidable murder group, I saw the yellow man
creep nearer, nearer, silently, bent and peering.

He was watching us.

Of another circumstance I became aware, and
a disquieting circumstance. There were fewer
murmurings and sighings from the surrounding
bunks. The presence of the crouching figure had
created a sudden semi-silence in the den, which
could only mean that some of the supposed
opium-smokers had merely feigned coma and the
approach of coma.

Nayland Smith lay like a dead man, and trust-
ing to the darkness, I, too, lay prone and still,
but watched the evil face bending lower and

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

lower, until it came within a few inches of my
own. I completely closed my eyes.

Delicate fingers touched my right eyelid. Di-
vining what was coming, I rolled my eyes up,
as the lid was adroitly lifted and lowered again.
The man moved away.

I had saved the situation ! And noting anew
the hush about me — a hush in which I fancied
many pairs of ears listened — I was glad. For
just a moment I realized fully how, with the
place watched back and front, we yet were cut
off, were in the hands of Far Easterns, to some
extent in the power of members of that most
inscrutably mysterious race, the Chinese.

"Good," whispered Smith at my side. "I
don't think I could have done it. He took
me on trust after that. My God ! what an awful
face. Petrie, it's the hunchback of Cadby's
notes. Ah, I thought so. Do you see that?"

I turned my eyes round as far as was possible.
A man had scrambled down from one of the
bunks and was following the bent figure across
the room.

They passed around us quietly, the little
yellow man leading, with his curious, lithe gait,
and the other, an impassive Chinaman, following.
The curtain was raised, and I heard footsteps
receding on the stairs.

fTO THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" Don't stir/' whispered Smith.

An intense excitement was clearly upon him,
and he communicated it to me. Who was the
occupant of the room above?

Footsteps on the stair, and the Chinaman re-
appeared, recrossed the floor, and went out. The
little, bent man went over to another bunk, this
time leading up the stair one who looked like a
lascar.

" Did you see his right hand? " whispered
Smith. "A dacoit! They come here to report
and to take orders. Petrie, Dr. Fu-Manchu is
up there."

"What shall we do? "—softly.

" Wait. Then we must try to rush the stairs.
It would be futile to bring in the police first.
He is sure to have some other exit. I will give
the word while the little yellow devil is down
here. You are nearer and will have to go first,
but if the hunchback follows, I can then deal
with him."

Our whispered colloquy was interrupted by the
return of the dacoit, who recrossed the room as
the Chinaman had done, and immediately took
his departure. A third man, whom Smith
identified as a Malay, ascended the mysterious
stairs, descended, and went out; and a fourth,
whose nationality it was impossible to determine,

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 71

followed. Then, as the softly moving usher
crossed to a bunk on the right of the outer
door —

" Up you go, Petrie," cried Smith, for further
delay was dangerous and further dissimulation
useless.

I leaped to my feet. Snatching my revolver
from the pocket of the rough jacket I wore, I
bounded to the stair and went blundering up in
complete darkness. A chorus of brutish cries
clamored from behind, with a muffled scream ris-
ing above them all. But Nayland Smith was
close behind as I raced along a covered gangway,
in a purer air, and at my heels when I crashed
open a door at the end and almost fell into the
room beyond.

What I saw were merely a dirty table, with
some odds and ends upon it of which I was too
excited to take note, an oil-lamp swung by a
brass chain above, and a man sitting behind the
table. But from the moment that my gaze rested
upon the one who sat ttiere, I think if the place
had been an Aladdin's palace I should have had
no eyes for any of its wonders.

He wore a plain yellow robe, of a hue almost
identical with that of his smooth, hairless coun-
tenance. His hands were large, long and bony,
and he held them knuckles upward, and rested,

72 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

his pointed chin upon their thinness. He had
a great, high brow, crowned with sparse, neutral-
colored hair.

Of his face, as it looked out at me over the
dirty table, I despair of writing convincingly.
It was that of an archangel of evil, and it was
wholly dominated by the most uncanny eyes that
ever reflected a human soul, for they were nar-
row and long, very slightly oblique, and of a bril-
liant green. But their unique horror lay in a cer-
tain filminess (it made me think of the memhrana
nictitans in a bird) which, obscuring them as I
threw wide the door, seemed to lift as I actually
passed the threshold, revealing the eyes in all
their brilliant iridescence.

I know that I stopped dead, one foot within
the room, for the malignant force of the man
was something surpassing my experience. He
was surprised by this sudden intrusion — yes,
but no trace of fear showed upon that wonderful
face, only a sort of pitying contempt. And, as
I paused, he rose slowly to his feet, never re-
moving his gaze from mine.

u It's Fu-Manchu! " cried Smith over my
shoulder, in a voice that was almost a scream.
" It's Fu-Manchu! Cover him ! Shoot him dead
if— »
, The conclusion of that sentence I never heard.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 73

Dr. Fu-Manchu reached down beside the table,
and the floor slipped from under me.

One last glimpse I had of the fixed green eyes,
and with a scream I was unable to repress I
dropped, dropped, dropped, and plunged into icy
water, which closed over my head.

Vaguely I had seen a spurt of flame, had heard
another cry following my own, a booming sound
(the trap) , the flat note of a police whistle. But
when I rose to the surface impenetrable darkness
enveloped me; I was spitting filthy, oily liquid
from my mouth, and fighting down the black ter-
ror that had me by the throat — terror of the
darkness about me, of the unknown depths be-
neath me, of the pit into which I was cast amid
stifling stenches and the lapping of tidal water.

" Smith I" I cried. . . . "Help! Help!"

My voice seemed to beat back upon me, yet I
was about to cry out again, when, mustering all
my presence of mind and all my failing courage,
I recognized that I had better employment of
my energies, and began to swim straight ahead,
desperately determined to face all the horrors
of this place — to die hard if die I must.

A drop of liquid fire fell through the darkness
and hissed into the water beside me!

I felt that, despite my resolution, I was going
macL

74 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

Another fiery drop — and another!

I touched a rotting wooden post and slimy
timbers. I had reached one bound of my watery
prison. More fire fell from above, and the scream
of hysteria quivered, unuttered, in my throat.

Keeping myself afloat with increasing diffi-
culty in my heavy garments, I threw my head
back and raised my eyes.

No more drops fell, and no more drops would
fall ; but it was merely a question of time for the
floor to collapse. For it was beginning to emit
a dull, red glow.

The room above me was in flames !

It was drops of burning oil from the lamp, find-
ing passage through the cracks in the crazy floor-
ing, which had fallen about me — for the death
trap had reclosed, I suppose, mechanically.

My saturated garments were dragging mel
down, and now I could hear the flames hungrily
eating into the ancient rottenness overhead.
Shortly that cauldron would be loosed upon my
head. The glow of the flames grew brighter
. . . and showed me the half-rotten piles uphold-
ing the building, showed me the tidal mark upon
the slime-coated walls — showed me that there
was no escape!

By some subterranean duct the foul place was
fed from the Thames. By that duct, with th£

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 75

outgoing tide, my body would pass, in the wake
of Mason, Cadby, and many another victim !

Rusty iron rungs were affixed to one of the walls
communicating with a trap — but the bottom
three were missing !

Brighter and brighter grew the awesome light

— the light of what should be my funeral pyre —
reddening the oily water and adding a new dread
to the whispering, clammy horror of the pit.
But something it showed me ... a projecting
beam a few feet above the water . . . and di-
rectly below the iron ladder!

" Merciful Heaven ! " I breathed. " Have I the
strength ? "

A desire for laughter claimed me with sudden,
all but irresistible force. I knew what it por-
tended and fought it down — grimly, sternly.

My garments weighed upon me like a suit of
mail ; with my chest aching dully, my veins throb-
bing to bursting, I forced tired muscles to work,
and, every stroke an agony, approached the beam.
Nearer I swam . . . nearer. Its shadow fell
black upon the water, which now had all the
seeming of a pool of blood. Confused sounds

— a remote uproar — came to my ears. I was
nearly spent ... I was in the shadow of the
beam ! If I could throw up one arm . . .

A shrill scream sounded far above me !

,76 THE INSIDIOUS DR FU-MAN^HU

"Petrie! Petrie!" (That voice must be
Smith's ! ) " Don't touch the beam ! For God's
sake don't touch the beam! Keep afloat another
few seconds and I can get to you ! " /

Another few seconds! Was that possible?

I managed to turn, to raise my throbbing
head; and I saw the strangest sight which that
night yet had offered.

Nayland Smith stood upon the lowest iron
rung . . . supported by the hideous, crook-
backed Chinaman, who stood upon the rung
above !

" I can't reach him ! "

It was as Smith hissed the words despairingly
that I looked up — and saw the Chinaman snatch
at his coiled pigtail and pull it off! With it
came the wig to which it was attached; and the
ghastly yellow mask, deprived of its fastenings,
fell from position!

" Here ! Here ! Be quick ! Oh ! be quick !
You can lower this to him! Be quick! Be
quick ! "

A cloud of hair came falling about the slim
shoulders as the speaker bent to pass this strange
lifeline to Smith; and I think it was my wonder
at knowing her for the girl whom that day I had
surprised in Cadby's rooms which saved my life.

For I not only kept afloat, but kept my gaze

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 77

upturned to that beautiful, flushed face, and my
eyes fixed upon hers — which were wild with
fear . . . for me!

Smith, by some contortion, got the false queue
into my grasp, and I, with the strength of desper-
ation, by that means seized hold upon the lowest
rung. With my friend's arm round me I realized
that exhaustion was even nearer than I had sup-
posed. My last distinct memory is of the burst-
ing of the floor above and the big burning joist
hissing into the pool beneath us. Its fiery pas-
sage, striated with light, disclosed two sword
blades, riveted, edges up along the top of the
beam which I had striven to reach.

" The severed fingers — " I said; and swooned.

How Smith got me through the trap I do not
know — nor how we made our way through the
smoke and flames of the narrow passage it opened
upon. My next recollection is of sitting up, with
my friend's arm supporting me and Inspector
Ryman holding a glass to my lips.

A bright glare dazzled my eyes. A crowd
surged about us, and a clangor and shouting
drew momentarily nearer.

" It's the engines coming," explained Smith,
seeing my bewilderment. " Shen-Yan's is in
flames. It was your shot, as you fell through
the trap, broke the oil-lamp."

78 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" Is everybody out? "

" So far as we know."

"Fu-Manchu?"

Smith shrugged his shoulders.

" No one has seen him. There was some door
i at the back — "

" Do you think he may — "

" No," he said tensely. " Not until I see him
lying dead before me shall I believe it."

Then memory resumed its sway. I struggled
to my feet.

"Smith, where is she?" I cried. "Where is
she?"

" I don't know," he answered.

" She's given us the slip, Doctor," said In-
spector Weymouth, as a fire-engine came swing-
ing round the corner of the narrow lane. " So
has Mr. Singapore Charlie — and, I'm afraid,
somebody else. We've got six or eight all-sorts,
some awake and some asleep, but I suppose we
shall have to let 'em go again. Mr. Smith tells
me that the girl was disguised as a Chinaman.
I expect that's why she managed to slip away."

I recalled how I had been dragged from the
pit by the false queue, how the strange discov-
ery which had brought death to poor Cadby had
brought life to me, and I seemed to remember,
too, that Smith had dropped it as he threw his

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 79

arm about me on the ladder. Her mask the
girl might have retained, but her wig, I felt cer-
tain, had been dropped into the water.

It was later that night, when the brigade still
were playing upon the blackened shell of what
had been Shen-Yan's opium-shop, and Smith and
I were speeding away in a cab from the scene
of God knows how many crimes, that I had an
idea.

" Smith," I said, " did you bring the pigtail
with you that was found on Cadby?"

" Yes. I had hoped to meet the owner."

"Have you got it now?"

" No. I met the owner."

I thrust my hands deep into the pockets of the
big pea-jacket lent to me by Inspector Ryman,
leaning back in my corner.

" We shall never really excel at this business,"
continued Nayland Smith. "We are far too
sentimental. I knew what it meant to us, Petrie,
what it meant to the world, but I hadn't the
heart. I owed her your life — I had to square
the account."

Chapter VII

NIGHT fell on Kedmoat. I glanced from
the window at the nocturne in silver and
green which lay beneath ine. To the west
of the shrubbery, with its broken canopy of elms
and beyond the copper beech which marked the
center of its mazes, a gap offered a glimpse of the
Waverney where it swept into a broad. Faint
bird-calls floated over the water. These, with
the whisper of leaves, alone claimed the ear.

Ideal rural peace, and the music of an Eng-
lish summer evening; but to my eyes, every
shadow holding fantastic terrors; to my ears,
every sound a signal of dread. For the deathful
hand of Fu-Manchu was stretched over Redmoat,
at any hour to loose strange, Oriental horrors
upon its inmates.

" Well," said Nayland Smith, joining me at the
window, " we had dared to hope him dead, but
we know now that he lives ! "

The Rev. J. D. Eltham coughed nervously, and
I turned, leaning my elbow upon the table, and

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 81

studied the play of expression upon the refined,
sensitive face of the clergyman.

" You think I acted rightly in sending for you,
Mr. Smith?"

Nayland Smith smoked furiously.

"Mr. Elthain," he replied, "you see in me a
man groping in the dark. I am to-day no nearer
to the conclusion of my mission than upon the
day when I left Mandalay. You offer me a clew ;
I am here. Your affair, I believe, stands thus:
A series of attempted burglaries, or something
of the kind, has alarmed your household. Yes-
terday, returning from London with your
daughter, you were both drugged in some way,
and, occupying a compartment to yourselves, you
both slept. Your daughter awoke, and saw some-
one else in the carriage — a yellow-faced man
who held a case of instruments in his hands."

"Yes; I was, of course, unable to enter into
particulars over the telephone. The man was
standing by one of the windows. Directly he
observed that my daughter was awake, he stepped
towards her."

" What did he do with the case in his hands? "

" She did not notice — or did not mention hav-
ing noticed. In fact, as was natural, she was so
frightened that she recalls nothing more, beyond
the fact that she strove to arouse me, without

82 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

succeeding, felt hands grasp her shoulders — and
swooned."

" But someone used the emergency cord, and
stopped the train."

" Greba has no recollection of having done
so."

" Hm ! Of course, no yellow-faced man was
on the train. When did you awake? "

" I wTas aroused by the guard, but only when
he had repeatedly shaken me."

" Upon reaching Great Yarmouth you imme-
diately called up Scotland Yard? You acted
very wisely, sir. How long were you in China? "

Mr. Eltham's start of surprise was almost
comical.

" It is perhaps not strange that you should be
aware of my residence in China, Mr. Smith," he
said ; " but my not having mentioned it may seem
so. The fact is " — his sensitive face flushed in
palpable embarrassment — " I left China under
what I may term an episcopal cloud. I have
lived in retirement ever since. Unwittingly —
I solemnly declare to you, Mr. Smith, unwit-
tingly — I stirred up certain deep-seated preju-
dices in my endeavors to do my duty — my duty.
I think you asked me how long I was in China?
I was there from 1896 until 1900 — four years."

" I recall the circumstances, Mr. Eltham," said:

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 83

Smith, with an odd note in his voice. " I have
been endeavoring to think where I had come
across the name, and a moment ago I remem-
bered. I am happy to have met you, sir."

The clergyman blushed again like a girl, and
slightly inclined his head, with its scanty fair
hair.

" Has Redmoat, as its name implies, a moat
tound it? I was unable to see in the dusk."

" It remains. Redmoat — a corruption of
Kound Moat — was formerly a priory, disestab-
lished by the eighth Henry in 1536." His pedan-
tic manner was quaint at times. " But the moat
is no longer flooded. In fact, we grow cabbages
m part of it. If you refer to the strategic
strength of the place " — he smiled, but his man-
ner was embarrassed again — " it is considerable.
I have barbed wire fencing, and — other arrange-
ments. You see, it is a lonelj spot," he added
apologetically. "And now, if you will excuse
me, we will resume these gruesome inquiries after
the more pleasant affairs of dinner."

He left us.

"Who is our host?" I asked, as the door
closed.

Smith smiled.

" You are wondering what caused the t episco-
pal cloud'?" he suggested. "Well, the deep-

$4 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

seated prejudices which our reverend friend
stirred up culminated in the Boxer Kisings."

" Good heavens, Smith ! " I said ; for I could
not reconcile the diffident personality of the
clergyman with the memories which those words
awakened.

" He evidently should be on our danger list/'
my friend continued quickly ; " but he has so com-
pletely effaced himself of recent years that I
think it probable that someone else has only just
recalled his existence to mind. The Rev. J. D.
Eltham, my dear Petrie, though he may be a poor
hand at saving souls, at any rate, has saved a
score of Christian women from death — and
worse."

" J. D. Eltham — " I began.

" Is ' Parson Dan ' ! " rapped Smith, " the
i Fighting Missionary/ the man who with a gar-
rison of a dozen cripples and a German doctor
held the hospital at Nan-Yang against two hun-
dred Boxers. That's who the Rev. J. D. Eltham
is! But what is he up to, now, I have yet to
find out. He is keeping something back —
something which has made him an object of in-
terest to Young China ! "

During dinner the matters responsible for our
presence there did not hold priority in the con-

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 85

versation. In fact, this, for the most part, con-
sisted in light talk of books and theaters.

Greba Eltham, the clergyman's daughter, was
a charming young hostess, and she, with Vernon
Denby, Mr. Eltham's nephew, completed the
.party. No doubt the girPs presence, in part, at
/any rate, led us to refrain from the subject up-
permost in our minds.

These little pools of calm dotted along the tor-
rential course of the circumstances which were
bearing my friend and I onward to unknown
issues form pleasant, sunny spots in my dark
recollections.

So I shall always remember, with pleasure,
that dinner-party at Eedmoat, in the old-world
dining-room; it was so very peaceful, so almost
grotesquely calm. For I, within my very bones,
felt it to be the calm before the storm.

When, later, we men passed to the library, we
seemed to leave that atmosphere behind us.

" Eedmoat," said the Rev. J. D. Eltham, " has
latterly become the theater of strange doings."

He stood on the hearth-rug. A shaded lamp
upon the big table and candles in ancient sconces
upon the mantelpiece afforded dim illumination.
Mr. Eltham's nephew, Vernon Denby, lolled
smoking on the window-seat, and I sat near to

S6 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

him. Nayland Smith paced restlessly up and
down the room.

" Some months ago, almost a year," continued
the clergyman, " a burglarious attempt was made
upon the house. There was an arrest, and the
man confessed that he had been tempted by my
collection." He waved his hand vaguely to-
wards the several cabinets about the shadowed
room.

" It was shortly afterwards that I allowed my
hobby for — playing at forts to run away with;
me." He smiled an apology. " I virtually
fortified Redmoat — against trespassers of any
kind, I mean. You have seen that the house
stands upon a kind of large mound. This is
artificial, being the buried ruins of a Roman out-
work ; a portion of the ancient castrum." Again
he waved indicatively, this time toward the
window.

" When it was a priory it was completely iso-
lated and defended by its environing moat. To-
day it is completely surrounded by barbed-wire
fencing. Below this fence, on the east, is a nar-
row stream, a tributary of the Waverney; on
the north and west, the high road, but nearly
twenty feet below, the banks being perpendicular.
On the south is the remaining part of the moat
■ — now my kitchen garden ; but from there up to

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 87

the level of the house is nearly twenty feet
again, and the barbed wire must also be counted
with.

" The entrance, as you know, is by the way of
a kind of cutting. There is a gate at the foot
of the steps (they are some of the original steps
of the priory, Dr. Petrie), and another gate at
the head."

He paused, and smiled around upon us boy-
ishly.

" My secret defenses remain to be mentioned,''
he resumed ; and, opening a cupboard, he pointed
to a row of batteries, with a number of electric
bells upon the wall behind. " The more vulner-
able spots are connected at night with these
bells," he said triumphantly. " Any attempt to
scale the barbed wire or to force either gate would
set two or more of these ringing. A stray cow
raised one false alarm," he added, " and a care-
less rook threw us into a perfect panic on an-
other occasion."

He was so boyish — so nervously brisk and
acutely sensitive — that it was difficult to see in
him the hero of the Nan- Yang hospital. I could
only suppose that he had treated the Boxers'
raid in the same spirit wherein he met would-be
trespassers within the precincts of Redmoat. It
had been an escapade, of which he was after-

88 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

wards ashamed, as, faintly, he was ashamed of
his " fortifications."

" But," rapped Smith, " it was not the visit
of the burglar which prompted these elaborate
precautions."

Mr. Eltham coughed nervously.

" I am aware," he said, " that, having invoked
official aid, I must be perfectly frank with you,
Mr. Smith. It was the burglar who was re-
sponsible for my continuing the wire fence all
round the grounds, but the electrical contrivance
followed, later, as a result of several disturbed
nights. My servants grew uneasy about someone
who came, they said, after dusk. No one could
describe this nocturnal visitor, but certainly we
found traces. I must admit that.

" Then — I received what I may term a warn-
ing. My position is a peculiar one — a peculiar
one. My daughter, too, saw this prowling per-
son, over by the Roman castrum, and described
him as a yellow man. It was the incident in
the train, following closely upon this other, which
led me to speak to the police, little as I desired
to — er — court publicity."

Nayland Smith walked to a window, and
looked out across the sloping lawn to where the
shadows of the shrubbery lay. A dog was howl-
ing dismally somewhere.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 89

" Your defenses are not impregnable, after all,
then?" he jerked. "On our way up this even-
ing Mr. Denby was telling us about the death of
his collie a few nights ago."

The clergyman's face clouded.

" That, certainly, was alarming," he confessed.
" I had been in London for a few days, and dur-
ing my absence Vernon came down, bringing
the dog with him. On the night of his arrival
it ran, barking, into the shrubbery yonder, and
did not come out. He went to look for it with a
lantern, and found it lying among the bushes,,
quite dead. The poor creature had been dread-
fully beaten about the head."

" The gates were locked," Denby interrupted,
" and no one could have got out of the grounds
without a ladder and someone to assist him.
But there was so sign of a living thing about.
Edwards and I searched every corner."

" How long has that other dog taken to howl-
ing?" inquired Smith.

" Only since Rex's death," said Denby quickly.

" It is my mastiff," explained the clergyman,
"and he is confined in the yard. He is never
allowed on this side of the house."

Nayland Smith wandered aimlessly about the
library.

" I am sorry to have to press you, Mr. Eltham,"

90 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

he said, " but what was the nature of the warn-
ing to which you referred, and from whom did
it come? "

Mr. Eltham hesitated for a long time.

" I have been so unfortunate," he said at last,
"in my previous efforts, that I feel assured of
your hostile criticism when I tell you that I am
contemplating an immediate return to Ho-Nan ! V

Smith jumped round upon him as though
moved by a spring.

" Then you are going back to Nan -Yang? " he
cried. " Now I understand ! Why have you
not told me before? That is the key for which
I have vainly been seeking. Your troubles date
from the time of your decision to return?"

" Yes, I must admit it," confessed the clergy-
man diffidently.

" And your warning came from China? "

* It did."

" From a Chinaman? "

" From the Mandarin, Yen-Sun- Yat."

" Yen-Sun- Yat ! My good sir! He warned
you to abandon your visit? And you reject his
advice? Listen to me." Smith was intensely
excited now, his eyes bright, his lean figure curi-
ously strung up, alert. " The Mandarin Yen-
Sun- Yat is one of the seven ! "

" I do not follow you, Mr. Smith."

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 91

" No, sir. China to-day is not the China of
'98. It is a huge secret machine, and Ho-Nan
one of its most important wheels! But if, as
I understand, this official is a friend of yours,
believe me, he has saved your life! You would
I be a dead man now if it were not for your friend
in China! My dear sir, you must accept his
counsel."

Then, for the first time since I had made his
acquaintance, " Parson Dan " showed through
the surface of the Rev. J. D. Eltham.

" No, sir ! " replied the clergyman — and the
change in his voice was startling. " I am called
to Nan- Yang. Only One may deter my going."

The admixture of deep spiritual reverence with
intense truculence in his voice was dissimilar
from anything I ever had heard.

" Then only One can protect you," cried Smith,
" for, by Heaven, no man will be able to do so !
Your presence in Ho-Nan can do no possible
good at present. It must do harm. Your ex-
perience in 1900 should be fresh in your memory."

" Hard words, Mr. Smith."

" The class of missionary work which you
favor, sir, is injurious to international peace.
At the present moment, Ho-Nan is a barrel of
gunpowder; you would be the lighted match. I
do not willingly stand between any man and

92 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

what he chooses to consider his duty, but I insist
that you abandon your visit to the interior of
China !"

" You insist, Mr. Smith? "

" As your guest, I regret the necessity for re-
minding you that I hold authority to enforce it."

Denby fidgeted uneasily. The tone of the con-
versation was growing harsh and the atmosphere
of the library portentous with brewing storms.

There was a short, silent interval.

" This is what I had feared and expected," said
the clergyman. " This was my reason for not
seeking official protection."

" The phantom Yellow Peril/' said Nayland
Smith, " to-day materializes under the very eyes
of the Western world."

" The < Yellow Peril ' ! "

" You scoff, sir, and so do others. We take
the proffered right hand of friendship nor inquire
if the hidden left holds a knife! The peace
of the world is at stake, Mr. Eltham. Un-
knowingly, you tamper with tremendous issues."

Mr. Eltham drew a deep breath, thrusting both
hands in his pockets.

" You are painfully f rank,T\Ir. Smith," he said ;
"but I like you for it. I will reconsider my
position and talk this matter over again with
you to-morrow."

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 93

Thus, then, the storm blew over. Yet I had
never experienced such an overwhelming sense
of imminent peril — of a sinister presence — as
oppressed me at that moment. The very at-
mosphere of Eedmoat was impregnated with
Eastern devilry ; it loaded the air like some evil
perfume. And then, through the silence, cut a
throbbing scream — the scream of a woman in
direst fear.

" My God, it's Greba! " whispered Mr. Elthanu

Chapter VIII

IN what order we dashed down to the draw-
ing-room I cannot recall. But none was be*
fore me when I leaped over the threshold and
saw Miss Eltham prone by the French windows.

These were closed and bolted, and she lay with
hands outstretched in the alcove which they
formed. I bent over her. Nayland Smith was
at my elbow.

" Get my bag," I said. " She has swooned. It
is nothing serious."

Her father, pale and wide-eyed, hovered about
me, muttering incoherently; but I managed to
reassure him; and his gratitude when, I having
administered a simple restorative, the girl sighed
shudderingly and opened her eyes, was quite
pathetic.

I would permit no questioning at that time,
and on her father's arm she retired to her own
rooms.

It was some fifteen minutes later that her mes-
sage was brought to me. I followed the maid
to a quaint little octagonal apartment, and

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 95

Greba Eltham stood before me, the candlelight
caressing the soft curves of her face and gleam-
ing in the meshes of her rich brown hair.

When she had answered my first question she
hesitated in pretty confusion.

" We are anxious to know what alarmed you,
Miss Eltham."

She bit her lip and glanced with apprehen-
sion towards the window.

" I am almost afraid to tell father," she began
rapidly. " He will think me imaginative, but
you have been so kind. It was two green eyes!
Oh! Dr. Petrie, they looked up at me from the
steps leading to the lawn. And they shone like
the eyes of a cat."

The words thrilled me strangely.

" Are you sure it was not a cat, Miss Eltham? "

" The eyes were too large, Dr. Petrie. There
was something dreadful, most dreadful, in their
appearance. I feel foolish and silly for having
fainted, twice in two days! But the suspense
is telling upon me, I suppose. Father thinks "
— she was becoming charmingly confidential, as
a woman often will with a tactful physician —
" that shut up here we are safe from — whatever
threatens us." I noted, with concern, a repeti-
tion of the nervous shudder. " But since our
return someone else has been in Redmoat ! "

96 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

"Whatever do you mean, Miss Elthani?"

" Oh ! I don't quite know what I do mean,
Dr. Petrie. What does it all mean? Vernon
has been explaining to me that some awful
Chinaman is seeking the life of Mr. Nayland
Smith. But if the same man wants to kill my
father, why has he not done so? "

" I am afraid you puzzle me."

" Of course, I must do so. But — the man in
the train. He could have killed us both quite
easily ! And — last night someone was in
father's room."

" In his room ! "

" I could not sleep, and I heard something
moving. My room is the next one. I knocked
on the wall and woke father. There was noth-
ing ; so I said it was the howling of the dog that
had frightened me."

" How could anyone get into his room?"

" I cannot imagine. But I am not sure it was
a man."

" Miss Eltham, you alarm me. What do you
suspect? "

" You must think me hysterical and silly, but
whilst father and I have been away from Ked-
moat perhaps the usual precautions have been
neglected. Is there any creature, any large
creature, which could climb up the wall to the

THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 97

window? Do you know of anything with a long,
thin body? "

For a moment I offered no reply, studying
the girl's pretty face, her eager, blue-gray eyes
widely opened and fixed upon mine. She was
not of the neurotic type, with her clear complex-
ion and sun-kissed neck; her arms, healthily
toned by exposure to the country airs, were
rounded and firm, and she had the agile shape
of a young Diana with none of the anaemic
languor which breeds morbid dreams. She was
frightened ; yes, who would not have been ? But
the mere idea of this thing which she believed to
be in Redmoat, without the apparition of the
green eyes, must have prostrated a victim of
" nerves."

" Have you seen such a creature, Miss Elt-
ham?"

She hesitated again, glancing down and press-
ing her finger-tips together.

" As father awoke and called out to know why
I knocked, I glanced from my window. The
moonlight threw half the lawn into shadow, and
just disappearing in this shadow was something
— something of a brown color, marked with
sections ! "

" What size and shape? "

" It moved so quickly I could form no idea of

08 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

its shape; but I saw quite six feet of it flash
across the grass ! "

" Did you hear anything? "

"A swishing sound in the shrubbery, then
nothing more."

She met my eyes expectantly. Her confidence
in my powers of understanding and sympathy
was gratifying, though I knew that I but oc-
cupied the position of a father-confessor.

" Have you any idea," I said, " how it came
about that you awoke in the train yesterday
whilst your father did not? "

" We had coffee at a refreshment-room ; it
must have been drugged in some way. I scarcely
tasted mine, the flavor was so awful ; but father
is an old traveler and drank the whole of his
cupful ! "

Mr. Eltham's voice called from below.

" Dr. Petrie," said the girl quickly, " what do
you think they want to do to him?"

" Ah ! " I replied, " I wish I knew that."

" Will you think over what I have told you?
For I do assure you there is something here in
Eedmoat — something that comes and goes in
spite of father's ' fortifications ? ! Caesar knows*
there is. Listen to him. He drags at his chain
so that I wonder he does not break it."

As we passed downstairs the howling of the

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 99

mastiff sounded eerily through the house, as did
the clank-clank of the tightening chain as he
threw the weight of his big body upon it.

I sat in Smith's room that night for some time,
he pacing the floor smoking and talking.

" Eltham has influential Chinese friends," he
said ; " but they dare not have him in Nan- Yang
at present. He knows the country as he knows
Norfolk; he would see things!

" His precautions here have baffled the enemy,
I think. The attempt in the train points to an
anxiety to waste no opportunity. But whilst
Eltham was absent (he was getting his outfit in
London, by the way) they have been fixing some
second string to their fiddle here. In case no
opportunity offered before he returned, they pro-
vided for getting at him here ! "

"But how, Smith?"

" That's the mystery. But the dead dog in
the shrubbery is significant."

" Do you think some emissary of Fu-Manchu
is actually inside the moat? "

" It's impossible, Petrie. You are thinking of
secret passages, and so forth. There are none.
Eltham has measured up every foot of the place.
There isn't a rathole left unaccounted for; and
as for a tunnel under the moat, the house stands
on a solid mass of Roman masonry, a former

100 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

camp of Hadrian's time. I have seen a very old
plan of the Round Moat Priory as it was called.
There is no entrance and no exit save by the
steps. So how was the dog killed? "

I knocked out my pipe on a bar of the grate.

" We are in the thick of it here," I said.

"We are always in the thick of it," replied
Smith. " Our danger is no greater in Norfolk
than in London. But what do they want to do?
That man in the train with the case of instru-
ments — wliat instruments ? Then the appari-
tion of the green eyes to-night. Can they have
been the eyes of Fu-Manchu? Is some peculiarly
unique outrage contemplated — something call-
ing for the presence of the master? "

" He may have to prevent Eltham's leaving
England without killing him."

" Quite so. He probably has instructions to
be merciful. But God help the victim of Chinese
mercy ! "

I went to my own room then. But I did not
even undress, refilling my pipe and seating my-
self at the open window. Having looked upon
the awful Chinese doctor, the memory of his face,
with its filmed green eyes, could never leave me.
The idea that he might be near at that moment
was a poor narcotic.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 101

The howling and baying of the mastiff was al-
most continuous.

When all else in Redmoat was still the dog's
mournful note yet rose on the night with some-
thing menacing in it. I sat looking out across
the sloping turf to where the shrubbery showed
as a black island in a green sea. The moon
swam in a cloudless sky, and the air was warm
and fragrant with country scents.

It was in the shrubbery that Denby's collie
had met his mysterious death — that the thing
seen by Miss Eltham had disappeared. What
uncanny secret did it hold?

Caesar became silent.

As the stopping of a clock will sometimes
awaken a sleeper, the abrupt cessation of that
distant howling, to which I had grown accus-
tomed, now recalled me from a world of gloomy
imaginings.

I glanced at my watch in the moonlight. It
was twelve minutes past midnight.

As I replaced it the dog suddenly burst out
afresh, but now in a tone of sheer anger. He
was alternately howling and snarling in a way
that sounded new to me. The crashes, as he
leapt to the end of his chain, shook the building
in which he was confined. It was as I stood up

102 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

to lean from the window and commanded a view
of the corner of the house that he broke loose.

With a hoarse bay he took that decisive leap,
and I heard his heavy body fall against the
wooden wall. There followed a strange, gut-
tural cry . . . and the growling of the dog died
away at the rear of the house. He was out!
But that guttural note had not come from the
throat of a dog. Of what was he in pursuit?

At which point his mysterious quarry entered,
the shrubbery I do not know. I only know that
I saw absolutely nothing, until Caesar's lithe
shape was streaked across the lawn, and the great
creature went crashing into the undergrowth.

Then a faint sound above and to my right told
me that I was not the only spectator of the scene.
I leaned farther from the window.

" Is that you, Miss Eltham? " I asked.

" Oh, Dr. Petrie ! " she said. " I am so glad
you are awake. Can we do nothing to help?
Csesar will be killed."

" Did you see what he went after? "

" No," she called back, and drew her breath!
sharply.

For a strange figure went racing across the
grass. It was that of a man in a blue dressing*
gown, who held a lantern high before him, and a
revolver in his right hand. Coincident with my

^HE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 103

recognition of Mr. Eltham lie leaped, plunging
into the shrubbery in the wake of the dog.

But the night held yet another surprise; for
Nayland Smith's voice came:

" Come back ! Come back, Eltham ! V

I ran out into the passage and downstairs.
The front door was open. A terrible conflict
waged in the shrubbery, between the mastiff and
something else. Passing round to the lawn, I
met Smith fully dressed. He just had dropped
from a first-floor window.

" The man is mad ! " he snapped. " Heaven
knows what lurks there! He should not have
gone alone ! "

Together we ran towards the dancing light of
Eltham's lantern. The sounds of conflict ceased
suddenly. Stumbling over stumps and lashed
by low-sweeping branches, we struggled forward
to where the clergyman knelt amongst the bushes.
He glanced up with tears in his eyes, as was re-
vealed by the dim light.

" Look ! " he cried.

The body of the dog lay at his feet.

It was pitiable to think that the fearless brute
should have met his death in such a fashion,
and when I bent and examined him I was glad
to find traces of life.

" Drag him out. He is not dead/' I said.

104 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

"And hurry," rapped Smith, peering about
him right and left.

Se we three hurried from that haunted place,
dragging the dog with us. We were not mo-
lested. No sound disturbed the now perfect
stillness.

By the lawn edge we came upon Denby, half
dressed; and almost immediately Edwards the
gardener also appeared. The white faces of the
house servants showed at one window, and Miss
Eltham called to me from her room:

" Is he dead? "

" No," I replied ; " only stunned."

We carried the dog round to the yard, and I
examined his head. It had been struck by some
heavy blunt instrument, but the skull was not
broken. It is hard to kill a mastiff.

" Will you attend to him, Doctor? " asked
Eltham. "We must see that the villain does
not escape."

His face was grim and set. This was a dif-
ferent man from the diffident clergyman we
knew : this was " Parson Dan " again.

I accepted the care of the canine patient, and
Eltham with the others went off for more lights
to search the shrubbery. As I was washing a
bad wound between the mastiff's ears, Miss Elt-
ham joined me. It was the sound of her voice,

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 105

I think, rather than my more scientific ministra-
tion, which recalled Csesar to life. For, as she
entered, his tail wagged feebly, and a moment
later he struggled to his feet — one of which was
injured.

Having provided for his immediate needs, I
left him in charge of his young mistress and
joined the search party. They had entered the
shrubbery from four points and drawn blank.

" There is absolutely nothing there, and no
one can possibly have left the grounds," said
Eltham amazedly.

We stood on the lawn looking at one another,
Nayland Smith, angry but thoughtful, tugging
at the lobe of his left ear, as was his habit in
moments of perplexity.

Chapter IX

WITH the first coming of light, Eltham,
Smith and I tested the electrical con-
trivances from every point. They
were in perfect order. It became more and more
incomprehensible how anyone could have entered
and quitted Kedmoat during the night. The
barbed- wire fencing was intact, and bore no signs
of having been tampered with.

Smith and I undertook an exhaustive examina-
tion of the shrubbery.

At the spot where we had found the dog, some
five paces to the west of the copper beech, the
grass and weeds were trampled and the surround-
ing laurels and rhododendrons bore evidence of
a struggle, but mo human footprint could be
found.

" The ground is dry," said Smith. " We can-
not expect much."

" In my opinion," I said, " someone tried to
get at Caesar; his presence is dangerous. And
in his rage he broke loose."

" I think so, too," agreed Smith. " But why

106

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 107

did this person make for here? And how, hav-
ing mastered the dog, get out of Redmoat? I
am open to admit the possibility of someone's
getting in during the day whilst the gates are
open, and hiding until dusk. But how in the
name of all that's wonderful does he get out?
He must possess the attributes of a bird."

I thought of Greba Eltham's statements, re-
minding my friend of her description of the thing
which she had seen passing into this strangely
haunted shrubbery.

" That line of speculation soon takes us out
of our depth, Petrie," he said. " Let us stick
to what we can understand, and that may help
us to a clearer idea of what, at present, is in-
comprehensible. My view of the case to date
stands thus:

" ( 1 ) Eltham, having rashly decided to return
to the interior of China, is warned by an official
whose friendship he has won in some way to
stay in England.

" (2) I know this official for one of the Yellow
group represented in England by Dr. Fu-
Manchu.

" (3) Several attempts, of which we know but
little, to get at Eltham are frustrated, presum-
ably by his curious < defenses.' An attempt in
a train fails owing to Miss Eltham's distaste

108 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

for refreshment-room coffee. An attempt here
fails owing to her insomnia.

" (4) During Eltham's absence from Redmoat
certain preparations are made for his return.
These lead to:

". (a) The death of Denby's collie ;

" (b) The things heard and seen by Miss Elt-
ham;

" (c) The things heard and seen by us all last
night.

" So that the clearing up of my fourth point
— id est, the discovery of the nature of these
preparations — becomes our immediate concern.
The prime object of these preparations, Petrie,
was to enable someone to gain access to Eltham's
room. The other events are incidental. The
dogs had to be got rid of, for instance ; and there
is no doubt that Miss Eltham's wakefulness
saved her father a second time."

" But from what? For Heaven's sake, from
what?"

Smith glanced about into the light-patched
shadows.

" From a visit by someone — perhaps by Fu-
Manchu himself," he said in a hushed voice.
" The object of that visit I hope we may never
learn; for that would mean that it had been
achieved."

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 109

" Smith," I said, u I do not altogether under-
stand you; but do you think he has some in-
credible creature hidden here somewhere? It
would be like him."

" I begin to suspect the most formidable crea- 1
ture in the known world to be hidden here. I
believe Fu-Manchu is somewhere inside Red-
moat ! "

Our conversation was interrupted at this point
by Denby, who came to report that he had ex-
amined the moat, the roadside, and the bank of
the stream, but found no footprints or clew of
any kind.

" No one left the grounds of Redmoat last
night, I think," he said. And his voice had awe
in it.

That day dragged slowly on. A party of us
scoured the neighborhood for traces of strangers,
examining every foot of the Roman ruin hard
by ; but vainly.

" May not your presence here induce Fu-Man-
chu to abandon his plans?" I asked Smith.

" I think not," he replied. " You see, unless
we can prevail upon him, Eltham sails in a fort-
night. So the Doctor has no time to waste.
Furthermore, I have an idea that his arrange-
ments are of such a character that they must go
forward. He might turn aside, of course, to as-

110 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

sassinate me, if opportunity arose! But we
know, from experience, that he permits nothing
to interfere with his schemes."

There are few states, I suppose, which exact
so severe a toll from one's nervous system as
the anticipation of calamity.

All anticipation is keener, be it of joy or pain,
than the reality whereof it is a mental forecast;
but that inactive waiting at Redmoat, for the
blow which we knew full well to be pending,
exceeded, in its nerve taxation, anything I hith-
erto had experienced.

I felt as one bound upon an Aztec altar, with
the priest's obsidian knife raised above my breast !

Secret and malign forces throbbed about us;
forces against which we had no armor. Dread-
ful as it was, I count it a mercy that the climax
was reached so quickly. And it came suddenly
enough ; for there in that quiet Norfolk home we
found ourselves at hand grips with one of the
mysterious horrors which characterized the oper-
ations of Dr. Fu-Manchu. It was upon us be-
fore we realized it. There is no incidental music
to the dramas of real life.

As we sat on the little terrace in the creeping
twilight, I remember thinking how the peace of
the scene gave the lie to my fears that we bordered
upon tragic things. Then Csesar, who had bf en

THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 111

a docile patient all day, began howling again;
and I saw Greba Eltham shudder.

I caught Smith's eye, and was about to pro-
pose our retirement indoors, when the party was
broken up in more turbulent fashion. I suppose
it was the presence of the girl which prompted
Denby to the rash act, a desire personally to dis-
tinguish himself. But, as I recalled afterwards,
his gaze had rarely left the shrubbery since dusk,
save to seek her face, and now he leaped wildly to
his feet, overturning his chair, and dashed across
the grass to the trees.

"Did you see it?" he yelled. "Did you see

it?"

He evidently carried a revolver. For from the
edge of the shrubbery a shot sounded, and in the
flash we saw Denby with the weapon raised.

" Greba, go in and fasten the windows," cried
Eltham. " Mr. Smith, will you enter the bushes
from the west. Dr. Petrie, east. Edwards,
Edwards — " And he was off across the lawn
with the nervous activity of a cat.

As I made off in an opposite direction I heard
the gardener's voice from the lower gate, and
I saw Eltham's plan. It was to surround the
shrubbery.

Two more shots and two flashes from the
dense heart of greenwood. Then a loud cry — I

112 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

thought, from Denby — and a second, muffled
one.

Following — silence, only broken by the howl-
ing of the mastiff.

I sprinted through the rose garden, leaped
heedlessly over a bed of geranium and heliotrope, '
and plunged in among the bushes and under the
elms. Away on the left I heard Edwards shout-
ing, and Eltham's answering voice.

" Denby ! " I cried, and yet louder : " Den-
by!"

But the silence fell again.

Dusk was upon Redmoat now, but from sitting
in the twilight my eyes had grown accustomed
to gloom, and I could see fairly well what lay
before me. Not daring to think what might lurk
above, below, around me, I pressed on into the
midst of the thicket.

" Vernon ! " came Eltham's voice from one
side.

" Bear more to the right, Edwards," I heard
Nayland Smith cry directly ahead of me.

With an eerie and indescribable sensation of
impending disaster upon me, I thrust my way
through to a gray patch which marked a break
in the elmen roof. At the foot of the copper
beech I almost fell over Eltham. Then Smith
plunged into view. Lastly, Edwards the gar-

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 118

dener rounded a big rhododendron and com-
pleted the party.

We stood quite still for a moment.

A faint breeze whispered through the beech
leaves.

"Where is he?"

I cannot remember who put it into words; I
was too dazed with amazement to notice. Then
Eltham began shouting:

" Vernon ! Vernon ! Vernon! "

His voice pitched higher upon each repetition.
There was something horrible about that vain
calling, under the whispering beech, with shrubs
banked about us cloaking God alone could know
what.

From the back of the house came Csesar's faint
reply.

" Quick ! Lights ! " rapped Smith. " Every
lamp you have ! n

Off we went, dodging laurels and privets, and
poured out on to the lawn, a disordered com-
pany. Elthanrs face was deathly pale, and his
jaw set hard. He met my eye.

" God forgive me ! " he said. " I could do
murder to-night ! "

He was a man composed of strange perplex-
ities.

It seemed an age before the lights were found.

114 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

But at last we returned to the bushes, really after
a very brief delay; and ten minutes sufficed us
to explore the entire shrubbery, for it was not
extensive. We found his revolver, but there
was no one there — nothing.

When we all stood again on the lawn, I thought
that I had never seen Smith so haggard.

" What in Heaven's name can we do? " he mut-
tered. " What does it mean? "

He expected no answer; for there was none to
offer one.

" Search ! Everywhere," said Eltham hoarsely.

He ran off into the rose garden, and began
beating about among the flowers like a madman,
muttering : " Vernon ! Vernon ! "

For close upon an hour we all searched. We
searched every square yard, I think, within the
wire fencing, and found no trace. Miss Eltham
slipped out in the confusion, and joined with the
rest of us in that frantic hunt. Some of the
servants assisted too.

It was a group terrified and awestricken which
came together again on the terrace. One and
then another would give up, until only Eltham
and Smith were missing. Then they came back
together from examining the steps to the lower
gate.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 115

Eltham dropped on to a rustic seat, and sank
liis head in his hands.

Nayland Smith paced up and down like a
newly caged animal, snapping his teeth together
and tugging at his ear.

Possessed by some sudden idea, or pressed to
action by his tumultuous thoughts, he snatched
up a lantern and strode silently off across the
grass and to the shrubbery once more. I
followed him. I think his idea was that he
might surprise anyone who lurked there. He
surprised himself, and all of us.

For right at the margin he tripped and fell
flat. I ran to him.

He had fallen over the body of Denby, which'
lay there!

Denby had not been there a few moments be-
fore, and how he came to be there now we dared
not conjecture. Mr. Eltham joined us, uttered
one short, dry sob, and dropped upon his knees.
Then we were carrying Denby back to the house,
with the mastiff howling a marche funebre.

We laid him on the grass where it sloped down
from the terrace. Nayland Smith's haggard
face was terrible. But the stark horror of the
thing inspired him to that, which conceived
earlier, had saved Denby. Twisting suddenly

116 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

to Eltham, lie roared in a voice audible beyond
the river:

"Heavens! we are fools! Loose the dog!"

" But the dog — " I began.

Smith clapped his hand over my mouth.

" I know he's crippled/' he whispered. " But;
if anything human lurks there, the dog will lead
us to it. If a man is there, he will fly! Why
did we not think of it before. Fools, fools ! "
He raised his voice again. " Keep him on leash,
Edwards. He will lead us."

The scheme succeeded.

Edwards barely had started on his errand
when bells began ringing inside the house.

" Wait ! " snapped Eltham, and rushed in-
doors.

A moment later he was out again, his eyes
gleaming madly.

" Above the moat," he panted. And we were
off en masse round the edge of the trees.

It was dark above the moat; but not so dark
as to prevent our seeing a narrow ladder of thin
bamboo joints and silken cord hanging by two
hooks from the top of the twelve-foot wire fence.
There was no sound.

" He's out ! " screamed Eltham. " Down the
steps ! "

We all ran our best and swiftest. But Elt-

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 11T

ham outran us. Like a fury he tore at bolts and
bars, and like a fury sprang out into the road.
Straight and white it showed to the acclivity by
the Roman ruin. But no living thing moved
upon it. The distant baying of the dog was
borne to our ears.

" Curse it ! he's crippled," hissed Smith.
" Without him, as well pursue a shadow ! "

A few hours later the shrubbery yielded up
its secret, a simple one enough: A big cask
sunk in a pit, with a laurel shrub cunningly
affixed to its movable lid, which was further dis-
guised with tufts of grass. A slender bamboo-
jointed rod lay near the fence. It had a hook
on the top, and was evidently used for attaching
the ladder.

"It was the end of this ladder which Miss
Eltham saw," said Smith, " as he trailed it be-
hind him into the shrubbery when she inter-
rupted him in her father's room. He and whom-
ever he had with him doubtless slipped in during
the daytime — whilst Eltham was absent in
London — bringing the prepared cask and all
necessary implements with them. They con-
cealed themselves somewhere — probably in the
shrubbery — and during the night made the
cache. The excavated earth would be disposed

118 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

of on the flower-beds; the dummy bush they
probably had ready. You see, the problem of
getting in was never a big one. But owing to
the l defenses' it was impossible (whilst Eltham
was in residence at any rate) to get out after
dark. For Fu-Manchu's purposes, then, a work-
ing-base inside Redmoat was essential. His
servant — for he needed assistance — must have
been in hiding somewhere outside ; Heaven knows
where! During the day they could come or go
by the gates, as we have already noted."

" You think it was the Doctor himself? "

" It seems possible. Whom else has eyes like
the eyes Miss Eltham saw from the window last
night? "

Then remains to tell the nature of the out-
rage whereby Fu-Manchu had planned to pre-
vent Eltham's leaving England for China. This
we learned from Denby. For Denby was not
dead.

It was easy to divine that he had stumbled
upon the fiendish visitor at the very entrance
to his burrow; had been stunned (judging from
the evidence, with a sand-bag) , and dragged down
into the cache — to which he must have lain in
such dangerous proximity as to render detection
of the dummy bush possible in removing him/
The quickest expedient, then, had been to draw;

THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 119

him beneath. When the search of the shrubbery
was concluded, his body had been borne to the
edge of the bushes and laid where we found it.

Why his life had been spared, I cannot con-
jecture, but provision had been made against his
recovering consciousness and revealing the se-
cret of the shrubbery. The ruse of releasing the
mastiff alone had terminated the visit of the un-
bidden guest within Eedmoat.

Denby made a very slow recovery; and, even
when convalescent, consciously added not one
fact to those we already had collated ; his memory
had completely deserted him !

This, in my opinion, as in those of the several
specialists consulted, was due, not to the blow on
the head, but to the presence, slightly below and
to the right of the first cervical curve of the
spine, of a minute puncture — undoubtedly
caused by a hypodermic syringe. Then, uncon-
sciously, poor Denby furnished the last link in
the chain; for undoubtedly, by means of this
operation, Fu-Manchu had designed to efface
from Eltham's mind his plans of return to Ho-
Nan.

The nature of the fluid which could produce
such mental symptoms was a mystery — a mys-
tery which defied Western science: one of the
many strange secrets of Dr. Fu-Manchu.

Chapter X

SINCE Nayland Smith's return from Burma
I had rarely taken up a paper without com-
ing upon evidences of that seething which
had cast up Dr. Fu-Manchu. Whether, hither-
to, such items had escaped my attention or had
seemed to demand no particular notice, or
whether they now became increasingly numer-
ous, I was unable to determine.

One evening, some little time after our so-
journ in Norfolk, in glancing through a number
of papers which I had brought in with me, 1
chanced upon no fewer than four items of news
bearing more or less directly upon the grim busi-
ness which engaged my friend and I.

No white man, I honestly believe, appreciates
the unemotional cruelty of the Chinese.
Throughout the time that Dr. Fu-Manchu re-
mained in England, the press preserved a uni-
form silence upon the subject of his existencec
This was due to Nayland Smith. But, as a re-
sult, I feel assured that my account of the China-

120

THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 121

man's deeds will, in many quarters, meet with
an incredulous reception.

I had been at work, earlier in the evening,
upon the opening chapters of this chronicle, and
I had realized how difficult it would be for my
reader, amid secure and cozy surroundings, to
credit any human being with a callous villainy
great enough to conceive and to put into execu-
tion such a death pest as that directed against
Sir Crichton Davey.

One would expect God's worst man to shrink
from employing — against however vile an
enemy — such an instrument as the Zayat Kiss.
So thinking, my eye was caught by the follow-
ing:—

EXPRESS COREESPONDENT

New York.

" Secret service men of the United States Gov-
ernment are searching the South Sea Islands for
a certain Hawaiian from the island of Maui,
who, it is believed, has been selling poisonous
scorpions to Chinese in Honolulu anxious to get
rid of their children.

" Infanticide, by scorpion and otherwise, among
the Chinese, has increased so terribly that the
authorities have started a searching inquiry,

222 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

which has led to the hunt for the scorpion dealer
of Maui.

" Practically all the babies that die myste-
riously are unwanted girls, and in nearly every
case the parents promptly ascribe the death to
the bite of a scorpion, and are ready to produce
some more or less poisonous insect in support of
the statement.

" The authorities have no doubt that infanti-
cide by scorpion bite is a growing practice, and
orders have been given to hunt down the scorpion
dealer at any cost."

Is it any matter for wonder that such a people
had produced a Fu-Manchu? I pasted the cut-
ting into a scrap-book, determined that, if I
lived to publish my account of those days, I
would quote it therein as casting a sidelight up-
on Chinese character.

A Keuter message to The Globe and a para-
graph in The Star also furnished work for my
scissors. Here were evidences of the deep-
seated unrest, the secret turmoil, which mani-
fested itself so far from its center as peaceful
England in the person of the sinister Doctor.

"Hong Kong, Friday.
" Li Hon Hung, the Chinaman who fired at tho

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 123

Governor yesterday, was charged before the
magistrate with shooting at him with intent to
kill, which is equivalent to attempted murder.
The prisoner, who was not defended, pleaded
guilty. The Assistant Crown Solicitor, who
prosecuted, asked for a remand until Monday,
which was granted.

" Snapshots taken by the spectators of the out-
rage yesterday disclosed the presence of an ac-
complice, also armed with a revolver. It is re-
ported that this man, who was arrested last
night, was in possession of incriminating docu-
mentary evidence."

Later.

" Examination of the documents found on Li
Hon Hung's accomplice has disclosed the fact
that both men were well financed by the Canton
Triad Society, the directors of which had en-
joined the assassination of Sir F. M. or Mr. C. S.,
the Colonial Secretary. In a report prepared by
the accomplice for dispatch to Canton, also found
on his person, he expressed regret that the at-
tempt had failed." — Renter.

" It is officially reported in St. Petersburg that
a force of Chinese soldiers and villagers sur-
rounded the house of a Russia i subject named

124 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

Said Effendi, near Khotan, in Chinese Tur-
kestan.

" They fired at the house and set it in flames.
There were in the house about 100 Kussians,
many of whom were killed.

" The Kussian Government has instructed its
Minister at Peking to make the most vigorous
representations on the subject.'' — Renter.

Finally, in a Personal Column, I found the
following : —

" Ho-Nan. Have abandoned visit. — Elt-
ham."

I had just pasted it into my book when Nay-
land Smith came in and threw himself into an
arm-chair, facing me across the table. I showed
him the cutting.

" I am glad, for Eltham's sake — and for the
girl's," was his comment. " But it marks an-
other victory for Fu-Manchu! Just Heaven X
why is retribution delayed ! "

Smith's darkly tanned face had grown leaner
than ever since he had begun his fight with the
most uncanny opponent, I suppose, against whom
a man ever had pitted himself. He stood up and
began restlessly to pace the room, furiously stuf-
fing tobacco into his briar.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 125

" I have seen Sir Lionel Barton," he said ab-
ruptly ; " and, to put the whole thing in a nut-
shell, he has laughed at me ! During the months
that I have been wondering where he had gone
to he has been somewhere in Egypt. He cer-
tainly bears a charmed life, for on the evidence
of his letter to The Times he has seen things in
Tibet which Fu-Manchu would have the West
blind to; in fact, I think he has found a new
keyhole to the gate of the Indian Empire ! "

Long ago we had placed the name of Sir Lionel
Barton upon the list of those whose lives stood
between Fu-Manchu and the attainment of his
end. Orientalist and explorer, the fearless
traveler who first had penetrated to Lhassa, who
thrice, as a pilgrim, had entered forbidden Mec-
ca, he now had turned his attention again to
Tibet — thereby signing his own death-warrant.

" That he has reached England alive is a hope-
ful sign?" I suggested.

Smith shook his head, and lighted the black-
ened briar.

" England at present is the web," he replied.
" The spider will be waiting. Petrie, I some-
times despair. Sir Lionel is an impossible man
to shepherd. You ought to see his house at
Finchley. A low, squat place completely
hemmed in by trees. Damp as a swamp ; smells

126 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

like a jungle. Everything topsy-turvy. He only
arrived to-day, and he is working and eating
(and sleeping, I expect), in a study that looks
like an earthquake at Sotheby's auction-rooms.
The rest of the house is half a menagerie and
half a circus. He has a Bedouin groom, a
Chinese body-servant, and Heaven only knows
what other strange people ! "

"Chinese!"

" Yes, I saw him ; a squinting Cantonese he
calls Kwee. I don't like him. Also, there is
a secretary known as Strozza, who has an un-
pleasant face. He is a fine linguist, I under-
stand, and is engaged upon the Spanish notes
for Barton's forthcoming book on the Mayapan
temples. By the way, all Sir Lionel's baggage
disappeared from the landing-stage — including
his Tibetan notes."

"Significant!"

" Of course. But he argues that he has
crossed Tibet from the Kuen-Lun to the Hima-
layas without being assassinated, and therefore
that it is unlikely he will meet with that fate in
London. I left him dictating the book from
memory, at the rate of about two hundred words
a minute."

" He is wasting no time."

" Wasting time ! In addition to the Yucatan

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 127

book and the work on Tibet, be bas to read a
paper at tbe Institute next week about some
tomb be bas uneartbed in Egypt. As I came
away, a van drove up from tbe docks and a
couple of fellows delivered a sarcophagus as big
as a boat. It is unique, according to Sir Lionel,
and will go to tbe British Museum after be bas
examined it. The man crams six months' work
into six weeks; then be is off again."

" What do you propose to do ? "

"What can I do? I know that Fu-Mancbu
will make an attempt upon him. I cannot doubt
it. Ugh ! that house gave me the shudders. No
sunlight, I'll swear, Petrie, can ever penetrate
to the rooms, and when I arrived this afternoon
clouds of gnats floated like motes wherever a
stray beam filtered through the trees of the
avenue. There's a steamy smell about the place
that is almost malarious, and the whole of the
west front is covered with a sort of monkey-
creeper, which he has imported at some time or
other. It bas a close, exotic perfume that is
quite in the picture. I tell you, the place was
made for murder."

"Have you taken any precautions?"

" I called at Scotland Yard and sent a man
down to watch the house, but — "

He shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

-*•

128 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" What is Sir Lionel like? "

"A madman, Petrie. A tall, massive man,
wearing a dirty dressing-gown of neutral color;
a man with untidy gray hair and a bristling
mustache, keen blue eyes, and a brown skin;
who wears a short beard or rarely shaves — I
don't know which. I left him striding about
among the thousand and one curiosities of that
incredible room, picking his way through his
antique furniture, works of reference, manu-
scripts, mummies, spears, pottery and what not
— sometimes kicking a book from his course, or
stumbling over a stuffed crocodile or a Mexican
mask — alternately dictating and conversing.
Phew!"

For some time we were silent.

" Smith," I said, u we are making no headway
in this business. With all the forces arrayed
against him, Fu-Manchu still eludes us, still
pursues his devilish, inscrutable way."

Nayland Smith nodded.

"And we don't know all," he said. "We
mark such and such a man as one alive to the
Yellow Peril, and we warn him — if we have
time. Perhaps he escapes; perhaps he does not.
But what do we know, Petrie, of those others
who may die every week by his murderous
agency? We cannot know everyone who has

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 129

read the riddle of China. I never see a report
of someone found drowned, of an apparent sui-
cide, of a sudden, though seemingly natural
death, without wondering. I tell you, Fu-Man-
chu is omnipresent; his tentacles embrace every-
thing. I said that Sir Lionel must bear a
charmed life. The fact that we are alive is a
miracle."

He glanced at his watch'.

" Nearly eleven," he said. " But sleep seems
a waste of time — apart from its dangers."

We heard a bell ring. A few moments later
followed a knock at the room door.

" Come in ! " I cried.

A girl entered with a telegram addressed to
Smith. His jaw looked very square in the lamp-
light, and his eyes shone like steel as he took it
from her and opened the envelope. He glanced
at the form, stood up and passed it to me, reach-
ing for his hat, which lay upon my writing-table.

" God help us, Petrie ! " he said.

This was the message:

" Sir Lionel Barton murdered. Meet me at
his house at once. — Weymouth, Inspector."

Chapter XI

LTHOUGH we avoided all unnecessary
delay, it was close upon midnight when
our cab swung round into a darkly
shadowed avenue, at the farther end of which,
as seen through a tunnel, the moonlight glittered
upon the windows of Kowan House, Sir Lionel
Barton's home.

Stepping out before the porch of the long,
squat building, I saw that it was banked in, as
Smith had said, by trees and shrubs. The facade
showed mantled in the strange exotic creeper
which he had mentioned, and the air was pun-
gent with an odor of decaying vegetation, with
which mingled the heavy perfume of the little
nocturnal red flowers which bloomed luxuriantly
upon the creeper.

The place looked a veritable wilderness, and
when we were admitted to the hall by Inspector
Weymouth I saw that the interior was in keep-
ing with the exterior, for the hall was constructed
from the model of some apartment in an
Assyrian temple, and the squat columns, the

130

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 131

low seats, the hangings, all were eloquent of
neglect, being thickly dust-coated. The musty
smell, too, was almost as pronounced here as out-
side, beneath the trees.

To a library, whose contents overflowed in
many literary torrents upon the floor, the de-
tective conducted us.

"Good heavens!" I cried, "what's that?"

Something leaped from the top of the bookcase,
ambled silently across the littered carpet, and
passed from the library like a golden streak. I
stood looking after it with startled eyes. Inspec-
tor Weymouth laughed dryly.

" It's a young puma, or a civet-cat, or some-
thing, Doctor," he said. " This house is full of
surprises — and mysteries."

His voice was not quite steady, I thought, and
he carefully closed the door ere proceeding
further.

" Where is he? " asked Nay land Smith harshly.
" How was it done? "

Weymouth sat down and lighted a cigar which
I offered him.

" I thought you would like to hear what led
up to it — so far as we know — before seeing
him?"

Smith nodded.

" Well," continued the Inspector, " the man

132 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

you arranged to send down from the Yard got
here all right and took up a post in the road
outside, where he could command a good view
of the gates. He saw and heard nothing, until
going on for half-past ten, when a young lady
turned up and went in."
"A young lady? "

"Miss Edmonds, Sir Lionel's shorthand typ-
ist. She had found, after getting home, that
her bag, with her purse in, was missing, and she
came back to see if she had left it here. She
gave the alarm. My man heard the row from
the road and came in. Then he ran out and
rang us up. I immediately wired for you."
" He heard the row, you say. "What row? "
" Miss Edmonds went into violent hysterics ! "
Smith was pacing the room now in tense ex-
citement.

" Describe what he saw when he came in."
" He saw a negro footman — there isn't an
Englishman in the house — trying to pacify the
girl out in the hall yonder, and a Malay and an-
other colored man beating their foreheads and
howling. There was no sense to be got out of
any of them, so he started to investigate for him-
self. He had taken the bearings of the place
earlier in the evening, and from the light in a
window on the ground floor had located the

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 133

study; so he set out to look for the door. When
he found it, it was locked from the inside."

"Well?"

" He went out and round to the window.
There's no blind, and from the shrubbery you can
see into the lumber-room known as the study.
He looked in, as apparently Miss Edmonds had
done before him. What he saw accounted for
her hysterics."

Both Smith and I were hanging upon his
words.

"All amongst the rubbish on the floor a big
Egyptian mummy case was lying on its side, and
face downwards, with his arms thrown across it,
lay Sir Lionel Barton."

"My God! Yes. Goon."

" There was only a shaded reading-lamp
alight, and it stood on a chair, shining right
down on him; it made a patch of light on the
floor, you understand." The Inspector indicated
its extent with his hands. " Well, as the man
smashed the glass and got the window open, and
was just climbing in, he saw something else, so
he says."

He paused.

" What did he see? " demanded Smith shortly.

" A sort of green mist, sir. He says it seemed
to be alive. It moved over the floor, about a

134 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

foot from the ground, going away from him and
towards a curtain at the other end of the
study."

Nayland Smith fixed his eyes upon the speaker.

"Where did he first see this green mist? "

" He says, Mr. Smith, that he thinks it came
from the mummy case."

" Yes ; go on."

" It is to his credit that he climbed into the
room after seeing a thing like that. He did.
He turned the body over, and Sir Lionel looked
horrible. He was quite dead. Then Croxted
— that's the man's name — went over to this
curtain. There was a glass door — shut. He
opened it, and it gave on a conservatory — a
place stacked from the tiled floor to the glass
roof with more rubbish. It was dark inside, but
enough light came from the study — it's really a
drawing-room, by the way — as he'd turned all
the lamps on, to give him another glimpse of
this green, crawling mist. There are three steps
to go down. On the steps lay^ a dead China-
man."

" A dead Chinaman ! "

"A dead Chinaman."

" Doctor seen them? " rapped Smith.

" Yes ; a local man. He was out of his depth,
I could see. Contradicted himself three times.

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 135

But there's no need for another opinion — until
we get the coroner's."

"And Croxted?"

" Croxted was taken ill, Mr. Smith, and had
to be sent home in a cab."

"What ails him?"

Detective-Inspector Weymouth raised his eye-
brows and carefully; knocked the ash from his
cigar.

" He held out until I came, gave me the story,
and then fainted right away. He said that
something in the conservatory seemed to get
him by the throat."

"Did he mean that literally?"

"I couldn't say. We had to send the girl
home, too, of course."

Nayland Smith was pulling thoughtfully at
the lobe of his left ear.

"Got any theory?" he jerked.

Weymouth shrugged his shoulders.

"Not one that includes the green mist," he
said. " Shall we go in now? "

We crossed the Assyrian hall, where the mem-
bers of that strange household were gathered in
a panic-stricken group. They numbered four.
Two of them were negroes, and two Easterns of
some kind. I missed the Chinaman, Kwee, of
whom Smith had spoken, and the Italian sec-

136 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

retary; and from the way in which my friend
peered about the shadows of the hall I divined
that he, too, wondered at their absence. We
entered Sir Lionel's study — an apartment
which I despair of describing.

Nayland Smith's words, "an earthquake at
Sotheby's auction-rooms," leaped to my mind at
once; for the place was simply stacked with
curious litter — loot of Africa, Mexico and Per-
sia. In a clearing by the hearth a gas stove
stood upon a packing-case, and about it lay a
number of utensils for camp cookery. The odor
of rotting vegetation, mingled with the insistent
perfume of the strange night-blooming flowers,
was borne in through the open window.

In the center of the floor, beside an overturned
sarcophagus, lay a figure in a neutral-colored
dressing-gown, face downwards, and arms thrust
forward and over the side of the ancient Egyp-
tian mummy case.

My friend advanced and knelt beside the dead
man.

"Good God!"

Smith sprang upright and turned with an
(extraordinary expression to Inspector Wey-
mouth.

"You do not know Sir Lionel Barton by
sight? " he rapped.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 137

"No," began Weymouth, "but — "

" This is not Sir Lionel. This is Strozza, the
secretary."

" What J " shouted Weymouth.

"Where is the other — the Chinaman —
quick ! " cried Smith.

" I have had him left where he was found —
on the conservatory steps," said the Inspector.

Smith ran across the room to where, beyond
the open door, a glimpse might be obtained of
stacked-up curiosities. Holding back the cur-
tain to allow more light to penetrate, he bent
forward over a crumpled-up figure which lay up-
on the steps below.

" It is ! » he cried aloud. " It is Sir Lionel's
servant, Kwee."

Weymouth and I looked at one another across
the body of the Italian; then our eyes turned
together to where my friend, grim-faced, stood
over the dead Chinaman. A breeze whispered
through the leaves; a great wave of exotic per-
fume swept from the open window towards the
curtained doorway.

It was a breath of the East — that stretched
out a yellow hand to the West. It was symbolic
of the subtle, intangible power manifested in
Dr. Fu-Manchu, as Nayland Smith — lean, agile,
bronzed with the suns of Burma, was symbolic

138 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

of the clean British efficiency which songht to
combat the insidious enemy.

" One thing is evident/' said Smith : " no one
in the house, Strozza excepted, knew that Sir
Lionel was absent."

" How do you arrive at that? " asked Wey-
mouth.

" The servants, in the hall, are bewailing him
as dead. If they had seen him go out they would
know that it must be someone else who lies here."

" What about the Chinaman ? "

" Since there is no other means of entrance to
the conservatory save through the study, Kwee
must have hidden himself there at some time
when his master was absent from the room."

" Croxted found the communicating door
closed. What killed the Chinaman?"

" Both Miss Edmonds and Croxted found the
study door locked from the inside. What killed
Strozza? " retorted Smith.

" You will have noted," continued the In-
spector, "that the secretary is wearing Sir
Lionel's dressing-gown. It was seeing him in
that, as she looked in at the window, which led
Miss Edmonds to mistake him for her employer
— and consequently to put us on the wrong
scent."

" He wore it in order that anybody looking in

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 139

at the window would be sure to make that mis-
take/' rapped Smith.

"Why?" I asked.

" Because he came here for a felonious purpose.
See." Smith stooped and took up several tools
from the litter on the floor. " There lies the
lid. He came to open the sarcophagus. It con-
tained the mummy of some notable person who
flourished under Meneptah II; and Sir Lionel
told me that a number of valuable ornaments and
jewels probably were secreted amongst the wrap-
pings. He proposed to open the thing and to
submit the entire contents to examination to-
night. He evidently changed his mind — fortu-
nately for himself."

I ran my fingers through my hair in perplexity.

"Then what has become of the mummy?"

Nayland Smith laughed dryly.

" It has vanished in the form of a green vapor
apparently," he said. " Look at Strozza's face."

He turned the body over, and, used as I was to
such spectacles, the contorted features of the
Italian filled me with horror, so suggestive were
they of a death more than ordinarily violent. I
pulled aside the dressing-gown and searched the
body for marks, but failed to find any. Nayland
Smith crossed the room, and, assisted by the de-,
tective, carried Kwee, the Chinaman, into the

140 THE INSIDIOUS DB. FU-MANCHU

study and laid him fully in the light. His puck-
ered yellow face presented a sight even more
awful than the other, and his blue lips were
drawn back, exposing both upper and lower
teeth. There were no marks of violence, but his
limbs, like Strozza's, had been tortured during
his mortal struggles into unnatural postures.

The breeze was growing higher, and pungent
odor-waves from the damp shrubbery, bearing,
too, the oppressive sweetness of the creeping
plant, swept constantly through the open win-
dow. Inspector Weymouth carefully relighted
his cigar.

" I'm with you this far, Mr. Smith," he said.
16 Strozza, knowing Sir Lionel to be absent, locked
himself in here to rifle the mummy case, for Crox-
ted, entering by way of the window, found the
key on the inside. Strozza didn't know that the
Chinaman was hidden in the conservatory — w

" And Kwee did not dare to show himself, be-
cause he too was there for some mysterious rea-
son of his own," interrupted Smith.

" Having got the lid off, something — some-
body — "

" Suppose we say the mummy? "

Weymouth laughed uneasily.

"Well, sir, something that vanished from a

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 141

locked room without opening the door or the
window killed Strozza."

" And something which, having killed Strozza,
next killed the Chinaman, apparently without
troubling to open the door behind which he lay
concealed/7 Smith continued. " For once in a
way, Inspector, Dr. Fu-Manchu has employed an
ally which even his giant will was incapable en-
tirely to subjugate. What blind force — what
terrific agent of death — had he confined in that
sarcophagus ! "

" You think this is the work of Fu-Manchu? "
I said. " If you are correct, his power indeed
is more than human."

Something in my voice, I suppose, brought
Smith right about. He surveyed me curiously.

" Can you doubt it? The presence of a con-
cealed Chinaman surely is sufficient. Kwee, I
feel assured, was one of the murder group, though
probably he had only recently entered that mys-
terious service. He is unarmed, or I should feel
disposed to think that his part was to assassinate
Sir Lionel whilst, unsuspecting the presence of
a hidden enemy, he was at work here. Strozza's
opening the sarcophagus clearly spoiled the
scheme."

" And led to the death — "

142 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" Of a servant of Fu-Manchu. Yes. I am at
a loss to account for that."

"Do you think that the sarcophagus entered
into the scheme, Smith? "

My friend looked at me in evident perplexity.

" You mean that its arrival at the time when
a creature of the Doctor — Kwee — was con-
cealed here, may have been a coincidence?"

I nodded; and Smith bent over the sarcopha-
gus, curiously examining the garish paintings
with which it was decorated inside and out. It
lay sideways upon the floor, and seizing it by
its edge, he turned it over.

" Heavy," he muttered ; " but Strozza must-
have capsized it as he fell. He would not have
laid it on its side to remove the lid. Hallo ! "

He bent farther forward, catching at a piece
of twine, and out of the mummy case pulled a
rubber stopper or u cork."

" This was stuck in a hole level with the floor
of the thing," he said. " Ugh ! it has a disgusting
smell."

I took it from his hands, and was about to
examine it, when a loud voice sounded outside
in the hall. The door was thrown open, and a
big man, who, despite the warmth of the weather,
wore a fur-lined overcoat, rushed impetuously
into the room.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 143

" Sir Lionel ! " cried Smith eagerly. " I
warned you! And see, you have had a very
narrow escape."

Sir Lionel Barton glanced at what lay upon
the floor, then from Smith to myself, and from
me to Inspector Weymouth. He dropped into
one of the few chairs unstacked with books.

" Mr. Smith," he said, with emotion, " what
does this mean? Tell me — quickly."

In brief terms Smith detailed the happenings
of the night — or so much as he knew of them.
Sir Lionel Barton listened, sitting quite still the
while — an unusual repose in a man of such evi-
dently tremendous nervous activity.

" He came for the jewels," he said slowly, when
Smith was finished; and his eyes turned to the
body of the dead Italian. " I was wrong to sub-
mit him to the temptation. God knows what
Kwee was doing in hiding. Perhaps he had
come to murder me, as you surmise, Mr. Smith,
though I find it hard to believe. But — I don't
think this is the handiwork of your Chinese doc-
tor." He fixed his gaze upon the sarcophagus.

Smith stared at him in surprise. "What do
you mean, Sir Lionel?"

The famous traveler continued to look towards
the sarcophagus with something in his blue eyes
that might have been dread.

144 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" I received a wire from Professor Rembold
to-night," lie continued. " You were correct in
supposing that no one but Strozza knew of my
absence. I dressed hurriedly and met the pro-
fessor at the Traveler's. He knew that I was
to read a paper next week upon" — again he
looked toward the mummy case — " the tomb of
Mekara; and he knew that the sarcophagus had
been brought, untouched, to England. He
begged me not to open it."

Nayland Smith was studying the speaker's
face.

" What reason did he give for so extraordinary
a request?" he asked.

Sir Lionel Barton hesitated.

" One," he replied at last, " which amused me

— at the time. I must inform you that Mekara

— whose tomb my agent had discovered during
my absence in Tibet, and to enter which I broke
my return journey to Alexandria — was a high
priest and first prophet of Amen — under the
Pharaoh of the Exodus; in short, one of the
magicians who contested in magic arts with
Moses. I thought the discovery unique, until
Professor Rembold furnished me with some curi-
ous particulars respecting the death of M. Page
le Roi, the French Egyptologist — particulars
new to me."

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 145

We listened in growing surprise, scarcely
knowing to what this tended.

" M. le Roi," continued Barton, u discovered,
but kept secret, the tomb of Amenti — another
of this particular brotherhood. It appears that
he opened the mummy case on the spot — these
priests were of royal line, and are buried in the
valley of Biban-le-Moluk. His Fellah and Arab
servants deserted him for some reason — on see-
ing the mummy case — and he was found dead,
apparently strangled, beside it. The matter was
hushed up by the Egyptian Government. Rem-
bold could not explain why. But he begged of
me not to open the sarcophagus of Mekara."

A silence fell.

The strange facts regarding the sudden death
of Page le Roi, which I now heard for the first
time, had impressed me unpleasantly, coming
from a man of Sir Lionel Barton's experience
and reputation.

" How long had it lain in the docks? " jerked
Smith.

" For two days, I believe. I am not a super-
stitious man, Mr. Smith, but neither is Professor
Rembold, and now that I know the facts re-
specting Page le Roi, I can find it in my heart to
thank God that I did not see . . . whatever came
out of that sarcophagus."

146 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

Nayland Smith stared Mm hard in the face.

" I am glad you did not, Sir Lionel/' he said ;
" for whatever the priest Mekara has to do with
the matter, by means of his sarcophagus, Dr. Fu-
Manchu has made his first attempt upon your
life. He has failed, but I hope you will accom-
pany me from here to a hotel. He will not fail
twice."

Chapter XII

IT was the night following that of the double
tragedy at Kowan House. Nayland Smith,
with Inspector Weymouth, was engaged in
some mysterious inquiry at the docks, and I had
remained at home to resume my strange chronicle.
And — why should I not confess it? — my mem-
ories had frightened me.

I was arranging my notes respecting the case
of Sir Lionel Barton. They were hopelessly in-
complete. For instance, I had jotted down the
following queries: — (1) Did any true parallel
exist between the death of M. Page le Roi and the
death of Kwee, the Chinaman, and of Strozza?

(2) What had become of the mummy of Mekara?

(3) How had the murderer escaped from a locked
room? (4) What was the purpose of the rub-
ber stopper? (5) Why was Kwee hiding in the
conservatory? (6) Was the green mist a mere
subjective hallucination — a figment of Croxted's
imagination — or had he actually seen it?

Until these questions were satisfactorily an-
swered, further progress was impossible. Nay;-

147

148 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

land Smith frankly admitted that he was out
of his depth. " It looks, on the face of it, more
like a case for the Psychical Research people
than for a plain Civil Servant, lately of Manda-
lay," he had said only that morning. i

" Sir Lionel Barton really believes that super-
natural agencies were brought into operation by
the opening of the high priest's coffin. For my
part, even if I believed the same, I should still
maintain that Dr. Fu-Manchu controlled those
manifestations. But reason it out for yourself
and see if we arrive at any common center. Don'ti
work so much upon the datum of the green mist,
but keep to the facts which are established."

I commenced to knock out my pipe in the ash-
tray ; then paused, pipe in hand. The house was
quite still, for my landlady and all the small
household were out.

Above the noise of the passing tramcar I
thought I had heard the hall door open. In the
ensuing silence I sat and listened.

Not a sound. Stay ! I slipped my hand into
the table drawer, took out my revolver, and stood
up.

There was a sound. Someone or something
was creeping upstairs in the dark!

Familiar with the ghastly media employed by
the Chinaman, I was seized with an impulse to

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 149

leap to the door, shut and lock it. But the
rustling sound proceeded, now, from immediately
outside my partially opened door. I had not the
time to close it; knowing somewhat of the hor-
rors at the command of Fu-Manchu, I had not
the courage to open it. My heart leaping wildly,
and my eyes upon that bar of darkness with its
gruesome potentialities, I waited — waited for
whatever was to come. Perhaps twelve seconds
passed in silence.

"Who's there?" I cried. "Answer, or I
fire!"

" Ah ! no," came a soft voice, thrillingly musi-
cal. " Put it down — that pistol. Quick ! I
must speak to you."

The door was pushed open, and there entered
a slim figure wrapped in a hooded cloak. My
hand fell, and I stood, stricken to silence, look-
ing into the beautiful dark eyes of Dr. Fu-Man-
chu's messenger — if her own statement could be
credited, slave. On two occasions this girl,
whose association with the Doctor was one of
the most profound mysteries of the case, had
risked — I cannot say what ; unnameable pun-
ishment, perhaps — to save me from death; in
both cases from a terrible death. For what was
she come now?

Her lips slightly parted, she stood, holding

150 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

her cloak about her, and watching me with greafi
passionate eyes.

" How — " I began.

But she shook her head impatiently.

"He has a duplicate key of the house door,"
was her amazing statement. " I have never be*
trayed a secret of my master before, but you musl;
arrange to replace the lock."

She came forward and rested her slim hands*,
confidingly upon my shoulders. " I have come
again to ask you to take me away from him,'5
she said simply.

And she lifted her face to me.

Her words struck a chord in my heart whicln
sang with strange music, with music so barbaric
that, frankly, I blushed to find it harmony
Have I said that she was beautiful? It can con
vey no faint conception of her. With her pure.,
fair skin, eyes like the velvet darkness of the
East, and red lips so tremulously near to mine,,
she was the most seductively lovely creature 1
ever had looked upon. In that electric moment;
my heart went out in sympathy to every man
who had bartered honor, country, all for a
woman's kiss.

" I will see that you are placed under proper
protection," I said firmly, but my voice was nofc
quite my own. "It is quite absurd to talk off

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 151

slavery here in England. You are a free agent,
or you could not be here now. Dr. Fu-Manchu
cannot control your actions."

a Ah ! " she cried, casting back her head scorn-
fully, and releasing a cloud of hair, through]
whose softness gleamed a jeweled head-dress^
* No? He cannot? Do you know what it means
to have been a slave? Here, in your free Eng-
land, do you know what it means — the razzia,
the desert journey, the whips of the drivers, the
house of the dealer, the shame. Bah ! w

How beautiful she was in her indignation!

" Slavery is put down, you imagine, perhaps?
You do not believe that to-day — to-day — >
twenty-five English sovereigns will buy a Galla
girl, who is brown, and " — whisper — " two hun-
dred and fifty a Circassian, who is white. No,
there is no slavery! So! Then what am I?"

She threw open her cloak, and it is a literal
fact that I rubbed my eyes, half believing that
I dreamed. For beneath, she was arrayed in
gossamer silk which more than indicated the
perfect lines of her slim shape; wore a jeweled
girdle and barbaric ornaments; was a figure fit
for the walled gardens of Stamboul — a figure
amazing, incomprehensible, in the prosaic setting
of my rooms.

" To-night I had no time to make myself an

152 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU i

English miss," she said, wrapping her cloak
quickly about her. " You see me as I am."

Her garments exhaled a faint perfume, and it
reminded me of another meeting I had had with
her. I looked into the challenging eyes.

" Your request is but a pretense," I said.
" Why do you keep the secrets of that man, when
they mean death to so many? "

" Death ! I have seen my own sister die of
fever in the desert — seen her thrown like carrion
into a hole in the sand. I have seen men flogged
until they prayed for death as a boon. I have
known the lash myself. Death! What does it
matter? "

She shocked me inexpressibly. Enveloped in
her cloak again, and with only her slight accent
to betray her, it was dreadful to hear such words
from a girl who, save for her singular type of
beauty, might have been a cultured European.

"Prove, then, that you really wish to leave
this man's service. Tell me what killed Strozza
and the Chinaman," I said.

She shrugged her shoulders.

" I do not know that. But if you will carry
me off " — she clutched me nervously — " so that
I am helpless, lock me up so that I cannot escape,
beat me, if you like, I will tell you all I do know.
While he is my master I will never betray him.

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 153

Tear me from him — by force, do you under-
stand, o\j force, and my lips will be sealed no
longer. Ah! but you do not understand, with
your ? proper authorities' — your police. Po-
lice! Ah, I have said enough."

A clock across the common began to strike.
The girl started and laid her hands upon my
shoulders again. There were tears glittering
among the curved black lashes.

"You do not understand," she whispered.
" Oh, will you never understand and release me
from him ! I must go. Already I have remained
too long. Listen. Go out without delay. Ke-
main out — at a hotel, where you will, but do
not stay here."

"And Nayland Smith?"

" What is he to me, this Nayland Smith? Ah,
why will you not unseal my lips? You are in
danger — you hear me, in danger! Go away
from here to-night."

She dropped her hands and ran from the room.
In the open doorway she turned, stamping her
foot passionately.

" You have hands and arms," she cried, " and
yet you let me go. Be warned, then; fly from
here—" She broke off with something that
sounded like a sob.

I made no move to stay her — this beautiful

154= THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

accomplice of the arch-murderer, Fu-Manchu. I
heard her light footsteps pattering down the
stairs, I heard her open and close the door —
the door of which Dr. Fu-Manchu held the key.
Still I stood where she had parted from me,
and was so standing when a key grated in the
lock and Nayland Smith came running up.

" Did you see her? " I began.

But his face showed that he had not done so,
and rapidly I told him of my strange visitor, of
her words, of her warning.

" How can she have passed through London
in that costume?" I cried in bewilderment.
" Where can she have come from? "

Smith shrugged his shoulders and began to
stuff broad-cut mixture into the familiar cracked
briar.

" She might have traveled in a car or in a
cab," he said ; " and undoubtedly she came direct
from the house of Dr. Fu-Manchu. You should
have detained her, Petrie. It is the third time
we have had that woman in our power, the third
time we have let her go free."

" Smith," I replied, " I couldn't. She came of
her own free will to give me a warning. She
disarms me."

" Because you can see she is in love with
you?" he suggested, and burst into one of his

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 155

rare laughs when the angry flush rose to my
cheek. " She is, Petrie — why pretend to be
blind to it? You don't know the Oriental mind
as I do; but I quite understand the girl's posi-
tion. She fears the English authorities, but
would submit to capture by you! If you would
only seize her by the hair, drag her to some cel-
lar, hurl her down and stand over her with a
whip, she would tell you everything she knows,
and salve her strange Eastern conscience with
the reflection that speech was forced from her.
I am not joking; it is so, I assure you. And she
would adore you for your savagery, deeming you
forceful and strong ! "

" Smith," I said, " be serious. You know
what her warning meant before."

" I can guess what it means now," he rapped.
" Hallo ! "

Someone was furiously ringing the bell.

" No one at home ? " said my friend. " I will
go. I think I know what it is."

A few minutes later he returned, carrying a
large square package.

" From Weymouth," he explained, " by district
messenger. I left him behind at the docks, and
he arranged to forward any evidence which sub-
sequently he found. This will be fragments of
the mummy."

156 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

"What! You think the mummy was ab-
stracted? "

"Yes, at the docks. I am sure of it; and
somebody else was in the sarcophagus when it
reached Eowan House. A sarcophagus, I find,
is practically airtight, so that the use of the rub-
ber stopper becomes evident — ventilation.
How this person killed Strozza I have yet to
learn."

"Also, how he escaped from a locked room.
And what about the green mist? "

Nayland Smith spread his hands in a charac-
teristic gesture.

" The green mist, Petrie, can be explained in
several ways. Remember, we have only one
man's word that it existed. It is at best a
confusing datum, to which we must not attach
a fictitious importance."

He threw the wrappings on the floor and
tugged at a twine loop in the lid of the square
box, which now stood upon the table. Suddenly
the lid came away, bringing with it a lead lin-
ing, such as is usual in tea-chests. This lining
was partially attached to one side of the box,
bo that the action of removing the lid at once
raised and tilted it.

Then happened a singular thing.

Out over the table billowed a sort of yellowish-

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 157

green cloud — an oily vapor — and an inspira-
tion, it was nothing less, born of a memory and
of some words of my beautiful visitor, came to
me.

"Run, Smith!" I screamed. "The door! the
door, for your life ! Fu-Manchu sent that box ! "

I threw my arms round him. As he bent for-
ward the moving vapor rose almost to his nostrils.
I dragged him back and all but pitched him out
on to the landing. We entered my bedroom, and
there, as I turned on the light, I saw that Smith's
tanned face was unusually drawn, and touched
with pallor.

" It is a poisonous gas ! " I said hoarsely ; " in
many respects identical with chlorine, but hav-
ing unique properties which prove it to be some-
thing else — God and Fu-Manchu, alone know
what! It is the fumes of chlorine that kill the
men in the bleaching powder works. We have
been blind — I particularly. Don't you see?
There was no one in the sarcophagus, Smith, but
there was enough of that fearful stuff to have
suffocated a regiment ! "

Smith clenched his fists convulsively.

" My God ! " he said, " how can I hope to deal
with the author of such a scheme? I see the
whole plan. He did not reckon on the mummy
case being overturned, and Kwee's part was to

158 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

remove the plug with the aid of the string —
after Sir Lionel had been suffocated. The gas,
I take it, is heavier than air."

" Chlorine gas has a specific gravity of 2.470,"
I said ; " two and a half times heavier than air.
You can pour it from jar to jar like a liquid —
if you are wearing a chemist's mask. In these
respects this stuff appears to be similar; the
points of difference would not interest you.
The sarcophagus would have emptied through the
vent, and the gas have dispersed, with no clew
remaining — except the smell."

" I did smell it, Petrie, on the stopper, but,
of course, was unfamiliar with it. You may re-
member that you were prevented from doing so
by the arrival of Sir Lionel? The scent of those
infernal flowers must partially have drowned it,
too. Poor, misguided Strozza inhaled the stuff,
capsized the case in his fall, and all the gas — "

" Went pouring under the conservatory door,
and down the steps, where Kwee was crouching.
Croxted's breaking the window created sufficient
draught to disperse what little remained. It
will have settled on the floor now. I will go
and open both windows."

Nayland raised his haggard face.

" He evidently made more than was necessary
to dispatch Sir Lionel Barton," he said ; " and

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 159

contemptuously — you note the attitude, Petrie?
— contemptuously devoted the surplus to me.
His contempt is justified. I am a child striving
to cope with a mental giant. It is by no wit of
mine that Dr. Fu-Manchu scores a double
failure."

Chapter XIII

I WILL tell you, now of a strange dream which
I dreamed, and of the stranger things to
which I awakened. Since, out of a blank
— a void — this vision burst in upon my mind,
I cannot do better than relate it, without pre-
amble. It was thus :

I dreamed that I lay writhing on the floor in
agony indescribable. My veins were filled with
liquid fire, and but that stygian darkness was
about me, I told myself that I must have seen
the smoke arising from my burning body.

This, I thought, was death.

Then, a cooling shower descended upon me,
soaked through skin and tissue to the tortured
arteries and quenched the fire within. Panting,
but free from pain, I lay — exhausted.

Strength gradually returning to me, I tried to
rise; but the carpet felt so singularly soft that
it offered me no foothold. I waded and plunged
like a swimmer treading water; and all about
me rose impenetrable walls of darkness, dark-
ness all but palpable. I wondered why I could

160

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 161

not see the windows. The horrible idea flashed
to my mind that I was become blind !

Somehow I got upon my feet, and stood sway-
ing dizzily. I became aware of a heavy perfume,
and knew it for some kind of incense.

Then — a dim light was born, at an immeas-
urable distance away. It grew steadily in bril-
liance. It spread like a bluish-red stain — like
a liquid. It lapped up the darkness and spread
throughout the room.

But this was not my room! Nor was it any
room known to me.

It was an apartment of such size that its di-
mensions filled me with a kind of awe such as I
never had known: the awe of walled vastness.
Its immense extent produced a sensation of
sound. Its hugeness had a distinct note.

Tapestries covered the four walls. There was
no door visible. These tapestries were magnifi-
cently figured with golden dragons; and as the
serpentine bodies gleamed and shimmered in the
increasing radiance, each dragon, I thought, in-
tertwined its glittering coils more closely with
those of another. The carpet was of such rich-
ness that I stood knee-deep in its pile. And this,
too, was fashioned all over with golden dragons ;
and they seemed to glide about amid the shadows
of the design — stealthily.

162 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

At the farther end of the hall — for hall it
was — a huge table with dragons' legs stood
solitary amid the luxuriance of the carpet. It
bore scintillating globes, and tubes that held
living organisms, and books of a size and in such
bindings as I never had imagined, with instru-
ments of a type unknown to Western science
- — a heterogeneous litter quite indescribable,
which overflowed on to the floor, forming an
amazing oasis in a dragon-haunted desert of car-
pet. A lamp hung above this table, suspended
by golden chains from the ceiling — which was
so lofty that, following the chains upward, my
gaze lost itself in the purple shadows above.

In a chair piled high with dragon-covered
cushions a man sat behind this table. The light
from the swinging lamp fell fully upon one side
of his face, as he leaned forward amid the jumble
of weird objects, and left the other side in
purplish shadow. From a plain brass bowl upon
the corner of the huge table smoke writhed aloft
and at times partially obscured that dreadful
face.

From the instant that my eyes were drawn to
the table and to the man who sat there, neither
the incredible extent of the room, nor the night-
mare fashion of its mural decorations, could re-
claim my attention. I had eyes only for hiia.

THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 163

For it was Dr. Fu-Manchu !

Something of the delirium which had seemed
to fill my veins with fire, to people the walls
with dragons, and to plunge me knee-deep in the
carpet, left me. Those dreadful, filmed green
eyes acted somewhat like a cold douche. I knew,
without removing my gaze from the still face,
that the walls no longer lived, but were merely
draped in exquisite Chinese dragon tapestry.
The rich carpet beneath my feet ceased to be as
a jungle and became a normal carpet — extraor-
dinarily rich, but merely a carpet. But the
sense of vastness nevertheless remained, with the
uncomfortable knowledge that the things upon
the table and overflowing about it were all, or
nearly all, of a fashion strange to me.

Then, and almost instantaneously, the compar-
ative sanity which I had temporarily experienced
began to slip from me again ; for the smoke faintly
penciled through the air — from the burning per-
fume on the table — grew in volume, thickened,
and wafted towards me in a cloud of gray horror.
It enveloped me, clammily. Dimly, through its
oily wreaths, I saw the immobile yellow face
of Fu-Manchu. And my stupefied brain ac-
claimed him a sorcerer, against whom unwit-
tingly we had pitted our poor human wits. The
green eyes showed filmy through the fog. An

CL64 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

intense pain shot through my lower limbs, and,
catching my breath, I looked down. As I did
so, the points of the red slippers which I dreamed
that I wore increased in length, curled sinuously
upward, twined about my throat and choked the
breath from my body!

Came an interval, and then a dawning like
consciousness; but it was a false consciousness,
since it brought with it the idea that my head
lay softly pillowed and that a woman's hand
caressed my throbbing forehead. Confusedly, as
though in the remote past, I recalled a kiss —
and the recollection thrilled me strangely.
Dreamily content I lay, and a voice stole to my
ears:

" They are killing him ! they are killing him !
!Oh! do you not understand? "

In my dazed condition, I thought that it was
I who had died, and that this musical girl-voice
was communicating to me the fact of my own
dissolution.

But I was conscious of no interest in the
matter.

For hours and hours, I thought, that soothing
hand caressed me. I never once raised my heavy
lids, until there came a resounding crash that
seemed to set my very bones vibrating — a me-
tallic, jangling crash, as the fall of heavy chains.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 165

t thought that, then, I half opened my eyes, and
that in the dimness I had a fleeting glimpse of
a figure clad in gossamer silk, with arms covered
with barbaric bangles and slim ankles sur-
rounded by gold bands. The girl was gone, even
as I told myself that she was an houri, and that
I, though a Christian, had been consigned by some
error to the paradise of Mohammed.
Then — a complete blank.

My head throbbed madly; my brain seemed
to be clogged — inert ; and though my first, feeble
movement was followed by the rattle of a chain,
some moments more elapsed ere I realized that
the chain was fastened to a steel collar — that
the steel collar was clasped about my neck.

I moaned weakly.

"Smith!" I muttered, "Where are you?
Smith ! "

On to my knees I struggled, and the pain on
the top of my skull grew all but insupportable.
It was coming back to me now; how Nay land
Smith and I had started for the hotel to warn
Graham Guthrie ; how, as we passed up the steps
from the Embankment and into Essex Street,
we saw the big motor standing before the door

166 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

of one of the offices. I could recall coming up
level with the car — a modern limousine; but
my mind retained no impression of our having
passed it — only a vague memory of a rush of
footsteps — a blow. Then, my vision of the hall
of dragons, and now this real awakening to a
worse reality.

Groping in the darkness, my hands touched a
body that lay close beside me. My fingers sought
and found the throat, sought and found the steel
collar about it.

" Smith," I groaned ; and I shook the still
form. " Smith, old man — speak to me !
Smith!"

Could he be dead? Was this the end of his gal-
lant fight with Dr. Fu-Manchu and the murder
group? If so, what did the future hold for me
? — what had I to face?

He stirred beneath my trembling hands.

" Thank God ! " I muttered, and I cannot deny
that my joy was tainted with selfishness. For,
waking in that impenetrable darkness, and yet
obsessed with the dream I had dreamed, I had
known what fear meant, at the realization that
alone, chained, I must face the dreadful Chinese
doctor in the flesh.

Smith began incoherent mutterings.

" Sand-bagged ! . . . Look put, Petrie ! . . .

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 167

He has us at last ! . . . Oh, Heavens ! " . . . He
struggled on to his knees, clutching at my hand.

" All right, old man/' I said. " We are both
alive! So let's be thankful."

A moment's silence, a groan, then:

" Petrie, I have dragged you into this. God
forgive me — "

" Dry up, Smith," I said slowly. " I'm not a
child. There is no question of being dragged
into the matter. I'm here ; and if I can be of any
use, Fm glad I am here ! "

He grasped my hand.

" There were two Chinese, in European
clothes — lord, how my head throbs ! — in that,
office door. They sand-bagged us, Petrie —
think of it ! — in broad daylight, within hail of
the Strand ! We were rushed into the car — and
it was all over, before — " His voice grew faint.
" God ! they gave me an awful knock ! "

" Why have we been spared, Smith? Do you
think he is saving us for — "

" Don't, Petrie ! If you had been in China,
if you had seen what I have seen — "

Footsteps sounded on the flagged passage. A
blade of light crept across the floor towards us.
My brain was growing clearer. The place had
a damp, earthen smell. It was slimy — some
noisome cellar. A door was thrown open and

168 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

a man entered, carrying a lantern. Its light
showed my surmise to be accurate, showed the
slime-coated walls of a dungeon some fifteen feet
square — shone upon the long yellow robe of the
man who stood watching us, upon the malignant,
intellectual countenance.

It was Dr. Fu-Manchu.

At last they were face to face — the head of
the great Yellow Movement, and the man who
fought on behalf of the entire white race. How
can I paint the individual who now stood before
us — perhaps the greatest genius of modern
times?

Of him it had been fitly said that he had a
brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan.
Something serpentine, hypnotic, was in his very
presence. Smith drew one sharp breath, and
was silent. Together, chained to the wall, two
mediaeval captives, living mockeries of our
boasted modern security, we crouched before Dr.
Fu-Manchu.

He came forward with an indescribable gait,
cat-like yet awkward, carrying his high shoulders
almost hunched. He placed the lantern in a
niche in the wall, never turning away the rep-
tilian gaze of those eyes which must haunt my
dreams forever. They possessed a viridescence

• THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 169

which hitherto I had supposed possible only in
the eye of the cat — and the film intermittently
clouded their brightness — but I can speak of
them no more.

I had never supposed, prior to meeting Dr.
Fu-Manchu, that so intense a force of malignancy
could radiate — from any human being. He
spoke. His English was perfect, though at times
his words were oddly chosen; his delivery alter-
nately was guttural and sibilant.

" Mr. Smith and Dr. Petrie, your interference
with my plans has gone too far. I have seri-
ously turned my attention to you."

He displayed his teeth, small and evenly sep-
arated, but discolored in a way that was familiar
to me. I studied his eyes with a new professional
interest, which even the extremity of our danger
could not wholly banish. Their greenness
seemed to be of the iris; the pupil was oddly
contracted — a pin-point.

Smith leaned his back against the wall with
assumed indifference.

" You have presumed," continued Fu-Manchu,
" io meddle with a world-change. Poor spiders
— caught in the wheels of the inevitable ! You
have linked my name with the futility of the
Young China Movement — the name of Fu-Man-

170 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

chu! Mr. Smith, you are an incompetent med-
dler — I despise you ! Dr. Petrie, you are a fool
— I am sorry for you ! "

He rested one bony hand on his hip, narrow-
ing the long eyes as he looked down on us. The
purposeful cruelty of the man was inherent; it
was entirely untheatrical. Still Smith remained
silent.

" So I am determined to remove you from the
scene of your blunders ! " added Fu-Manchu.

" Opium will very shortly do the same for
you ! " I rapped at him savagely.

Without emotion he turned the narrowed eyes
upon me.

" That is a matter of opinion, Doctor/' he said.
" You may have lacked the opportunities which
have been mine for studying that subject — and
in any event I shall not be privileged to enjoy
your advice in the future."

" You will not long outlive me," I replied.
"And our deaths will not profit you, inciden-
tally ; because — " Smith's foot touched mine.

"Because?" inquired Fu-Manchu softly.
" Ah ! Mr. Smith is so prudent ! He is thinking
that I have files!" He pronounced the word in
a way that made me shudder. " Mr. Smith has
seen a wire jacket! Have you ever seen a wire

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 171'

jacket? As a surgeon its functions would in-
terest you ! "

I stifled a cry that rose to my lips; for, with
a shrill whistling sound, a small shape came
bounding into the dimly lit vault, then shot up-
ward. A marmoset landed on the shoulder of
Dr. Fu-Manchu and peered grotesquely into the
dreadful yellow face. The Doctor raised his
bony hand and fondled the little creature, croon-
ing to it.

" One of my pets, Mr. Smith/' he said, sud-»
denly opening his eyes fully so that they blazed
like green lamps. " I have others, equally use-
ful. My scorpions — have you met my scor-
pions? No? My pythons and hamadryads?
Then there are my fungi and my tiny allies, the
bacilli. I have a collection in my laboratory
quite unique. Have you ever visited Molokai,
the leper island, Doctor? No? But Mr. Nay-
land Smith will be familiar with the asylum at
Rangoon! And we must not forget my black
spiders, with their diamond eyes — my spiders,
that sit in the dark and watch — then leap ! "

He raised his lean hands, so that the sleeve of
the robe fell back to the elbow, and the ape
dropped, chattering, to the floor and ran from the
cellar.

172 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MAITCHU

"O God of Cathay!" he cried, "by what
death shall these die — these miserable ones who
would bind thine Empire, which is boundless ! "

Like some priest of Tezcat he stood, his eyes
I upraised to the roof, his lean body quivering —
J a sight to shock the most unimpressionable mind.

" He is mad ! " I whispered to Smith. " God
help us, the man is a dangerous homicidal
maniac ! "

Nayland Smith's tanned face was very drawn,
but he shook his head grimly.

" Dangerous, yes, I agree," he muttered ; " his
existence is a danger to the entire white race
which, now, we are powerless to avert."

Dr. Fu-Manchu recovered himself, took up the
lantern and, turning abruptly, walked to the
door, with his awkward, yet feline gait. At
the threshold he looked back.

"You would have warned Mr. Graham
Guthrie?" he said, in a soft voice. "To-night,
at half-past twelve, Mr. Graham Guthrie dies ! "

Smith sat silent and motionless, his eyes fixed
upon the speaker.

"You were in Rangoon in 1908?" continued
Dr. Fu-Manchu — "you remember the Call?"

From somewhere above us — I could not de-
termine the exact direction — came a low, wail-
ing cry, an uncanny thing of falling cadences,

THE INSIDIOUS BR. FU-MANCHU 173

which, in that dismal vault, with the sinister
yellow-robed figure at the door, seemed to pour
ice into my veins. Its effect upon Smith was
truly extraordinary. His face showed grayly
in the faint light, and I heard him draw a hiss-
ing breath through clenched teeth.

" It calls for you ! " said Fu-Manchu. " At
half-past twelve it calls for Graham Guthrie ! "

The door closed and darkness mantled us
again.

"Smith," I said, "what was that?" The
horrors about us were playing havoc with my
nerves.

"It was the Call of Siva!" replied Smith
hoarsely.

"What is it? Who uttered it? What does
it mean ? "

" I don't know what it is, Petrie, nor who
utters it. But it means death ! "

Chapter XIV

iHEKE may be some who could have lain,
chained to that noisome cell, and felt no
fear — no dread of what the blackness
might hold. I confess that I am not one of
these. I knew that Nayland Smith and I stood
in the path of the most stupendous genius who
in the world's history had devoted his intellect
to crime. I knew that the enormous wealth of
the political group backing Dr. Fu-Manchu
rendered him a menace to Europe and to Amer-
ica greater than that of the plague. He was a
scientist trained at a great university — an ex-
plorer of nature's secrets, who had gone farther
into the unknown, I suppose, than any living
man. His mission was to remove all obstacles
— human obstacles — from the path of that
secret movement which was progressing in the
Far East. Smith and I were two such obstacles ;
and of all the horrible devices at his command,
I wondered, and my tortured brain refused to
leave the subject, by which of them were we
doomed to be dispatched?

174

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 175

Even at that very moment some venomous cen-
tipede might be wriggling towards me over the
slime of the stones, some poisonous spider be
preparing to drop from the roof! Fu-Manchu
might have released a serpent in the cellar, or
the air be alive with microbes of a loathsome
disease !

" Smith/* I said, scarcely recognizing my own
voice, " I can't bear this suspense. He intends
to kill us, that is certain, but — "

" Don't worry," came the reply ; " he intends
to learn our plans first."

" You mean — ? v

" You heard him speak of his files and of his
wire jacket? "

" Oh, my God ! " I groaned ; " can this be
England?"

Smith laughed dryly, and I heard him fum-
bling with the steel collar about his neck.

" I have one great hope," he said, " since you
share my captivity, but we must neglect no
minor chance. Try with your pocket-knife if
you can force the lock. I am trying to break
this one."

Truth to tell, the idea had not entered my
half-dazed mind, but I immediately acted upon
my friend's suggestion, setting to work with the
small blade of my knife. I was so engaged,

176 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

and, having snapped one blade, was about £6
open another, when a sound arrested me. It
came from beneath my feet.

" Smith," I whispered, " listen ! "

The scraping and clicking which told of
Smith's efforts ceased. Motionless, we sat in
that humid darkness and listened.

Something was moving beneath the stones of
the cellar. I held my breath; every nerve in
my body was strung up.

A line of light showed a few feet from where
we lay. It widened — became an oblong. A
trap was lifted, and within a yard of me, there
rose a dimly seen head. Horror I had expected
— and death, or worse. Instead, I saw a lovely
face, crowned with a disordered mass of curling
hair; I saw a white arm upholding the stone
slab, a shapely arm clasped about the elbow by
a broad gold bangle.

The girl climbed into the cellar and placed
the lantern on the stone floor. In the dim light
she was unreal — a figure from an opium vision,
with her clinging silk draperies and garish
jewelry, with her feet encased in little red
slippers. In short, this was the houri of my
vision, materialized. It was difficult to believe
that we were in modern, up-to-date England;

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 177

easy to dream that we were the captives of a
caliph, in a dungeon in old Bagdad.

"My prayers are answered/7 said Smith'
softly. " She has come to save you."

" S-sh ! " warned the girl, and her wonderful
eyes opened widely, fearfully. "A sound and
he will kill us all."

She bent over me; a key jarred in the lock
which had broken my penknife — and the collar
was off. As I rose to my feet the girl turned
and released Smith. She raised the lantern
above the trap, and signed to us to descend the
wooden steps which its light revealed.

" Your knife," she whispered to me. " Leave
it on the floor. He will think you forced the
locks. Down ! Quickly ! "

Nayland Smith, stepping gingerly, disap-
peared into the darkness. I rapidly followed.
Last of all came our mysterious friend, a gold
band about one of her ankles gleaming in the
rays of the lantern which she carried. We
stood in a low-arched passage.

" Tie your handkerchiefs over your eyes and
do exactly as I tell you," she ordered.

Neither of us hesitated to obey her. Blind-
folded, I allowed her to lead me, and Smith rested
his hand upon my shoulder. In that order we

178 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

proceeded, and came to stone steps, which we
ascended.

"Keep to the wall on the left," came a whis-
per. " There is danger on the right."

With my free hand I felt for and found the
wall, and we pressed forward. The atmosphere
of the place through which we were passing was
steamy, and loaded with an odor like that of
exotic plant life. But a faint animal scent
crept to my nostrils, too, and there was a sub
dued stir about me, infinitely suggestive — mys
terious.

Now my feet sank in a soft carpet, and a cur
tain brushed my shoulder. A gong sounded
We stopped.

The din of distant drumming came to my ears

"Where in Heaven's name are we?" hissed
Smith in my ear ; " that is a tom-tom ! "

" S-sh ! S-sh ! "

The little hand grasping mine quivered nerv-
ously. We were near a door or a window, for
a breath of perfume was wafted through the air;
and it reminded me of my other meetings with
the beautiful woman who was now leading us
from the house of Fu-Manchu; who, with her
own lips, had told me that she wTas his slave.
Through the horrible phantasmagoria she flitted
— a seductive vision, her piquant loveliness

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 179

standing out richly in its black setting of mur-
der and devilry. Not once, but a thousand
times, I had tried to reason out the nature of
the tie which bound her to the sinister Doctor.

Silence fell.

"Quick! This way!"

Down a thickly carpeted stair we went. Our
guide opened a door, and led us along a passage.
Another door was opened; and we were in the
open air. But the girl never tarried, pulling me
along a graveled path, with a fresh breeze blow-
ing in my face, and along until, unmistakably,
I stood upon the river bank. Now, planking
creaked to our tread; and looking downward be-
neath the handkerchief, I saw the gleam of
water beneath my feet.

" Be careful ! " I was warned, and found my-
self stepping into a narrow boat — a punt.

Nayland Smith followed, and the girl pushed
the punt off and poled out into the stream.

" Don't speak ! " she directed.

My brain was fevered; I scarce knew if I
dreamed and was waking, or if the reality ended
with my imprisonment in the clammy cellar
and this silent escape, blindfolded, upon the
river with a girl for our guide who might have
stepped out of the pages of "The Arabian
Nights " were fantasy — the mockery of sleep.

180 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

Indeed, I began seriously to doubt if this
stream whereon we floated, whose waters plashed
and tinkled about us, were the Thames, the
Tigris, or the Styx.

The punt touched a bank.

" You will hear a clock strike in a few min-
utes," said the girl, with her soft, charming ac-
cent, " but I rely upon your honor not to remove
the handkerchiefs until then. You owe me this."

" We do ! " said Smith fervently.

I heard him scrambling to the bank, and a mo-
ment later a soft hand was placed in mine, and
I, too, was guided on to terra firma. Arrived on
the bank, I still held the girPs hand, drawing
her towards me.

" You must not go back," I whispered. " We
will take care of you. You must not return to
that place."

" Let me go ! " she said. " When, once, I
asked you to take me from him, you spoke of
police protection; that was your answer, police
protection! You would let them lock me up —
imprison me — and make me betray him! For
what? For what?" She wrenched herself
free. " How little you understand me. Never
mind. Perhaps one day you will know! Until
the clock strikes ! "

She was gone. I heard the creak of the punt,

V 7

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 181

the drip of the water from the pole. Fainter it
grew, and fainter.

"What is her secret?" muttered Smith, be-
side me. " Why does she cling to that
monster?"

The distant sound died away entirely. A
clock began to strike; it struck the half-hour.
In an instant my handkerchief was off, and so
Was Smith's. We stood upon a towing-path.
Away to the left the moon shone upon the towers
and battlements of an ancient fortress.

It was Windsor Castle.

" Half-past ten," cried Smith. " Two hours
to save Graham Guthrie ! "

We had exactly fourteen minutes in which to
catch the last train to Waterloo ; and we caught
it. But I sank into a corner of the compart-
ment in a state bordering upon collapse. Neither
of us, I think, could have managed another
twenty yards. With a lesser stake than a hu-
man life at issue, I doubt if we should have at-
tempted that dash to Windsor station.

" Due at Waterloo at eleven-fifty-one," panted
Smith. " That gives us thirty-nine minutes to
get to the other side of the river and reach his
hotel."

" Where in Heaven's name is that house situ-
ated? Did we come up or down stream? "

182 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" I couldn't determine. But at any rate, it
stands close to the riverside. It should be
merely a question of time to identify it. I shall
set Scotland Yard to work immediately; but I
am hoping for nothing. Our escape will warn
him."

I said no more for a time, sitting wiping the
perspiration from my forehead and watching
my friend load his cracked briar with the broad-
cut Latakia mixture.

" Smith/' I said at last, " what was that hor-
rible wailing we heard, and what did Fu-Manchu
mean when he referred to Rangoon? I noticed
how it affected you."

My friend nodded and lighted his pipe.

" There was a ghastly business there in 1908
or early in 1909," he replied : " an utterly mys-
terious epidemic. And this beastly wailing was
associated with it."

"In what way? And what do you mean by
an epidemic? "

" It began, I believe, at the Palace Mansions
Hotel, in the cantonments. A young American, i
whose name I cannot recall, was staying there on
business connected with some new iron buildings.
One night he went to his room, locked the door,
and jumped out of the window into the court-
yard. Broke his neck, of course."

- THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 183

"Suicide?"

"Apparently. But there were singular fea-
tures in the case. For instance, his revolver
lay beside him, fully loaded ! "

"In the courtyard?"

" In the courtyard ! "

" Was it murder by any chance? "

Smith shrugged his shoulders.

" His door was found locked from the inside ;
had to be broken in."

"But the wailing business?"

" That began later, or was only noticed later.
A French doctor, named Lafitte, died in exactly
the same way."

" At the same place? "

"At the same hotel; but he occupied a dif-
ferent room. Here is the extraordinary part
of the affair : a friend shared the room with him,
and actually saw him go ! "

"Saw him leap from the window?"

"Yes. The friend — an Englishman — was
aroused by the uncanny wailing. I was in
Bangoon at the time, so that I know more of
the case of Lafitte than of that of the Ameri-
can. I spoke to the man about it personally.
He was an electrical engineer, Edward Martin,
and he told me that the cry seemed to come from
above him.i',

184 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" It seemed to come from above when we heard
it at Fu-Manchu's house."

" Martin sat up in bed, it was a clear moon-
light night — the sort of moonlight you get in
Burma. Lafitte, for some reason, had just gone
to the window. His friend saw him look out.
The next moment with a dreadful scream, he
threw himself forward — and crashed down into
the courtyard ! "

"What then?"

" Martin ran to the window and looked down.
Lafitte's scream had aroused the place, of course.
But there was absolutely nothing to account for
the occurrence. There was no balcony, no
ledge, by means of which anyone could reach
the window.''

" But how did you come to recognize the cry? "

" I stopped at the Palace Mansions for some
time; and one night this uncanny howling
aroused me. I heard it quite distinctly, and am
never likely to forget it. It was followed by a
hoarse yell. The man in the next room, an or-
chid hunter, had gone the same way as the
others ! "

" Did you change your quarters? "

"No. Fortunately for the reputation of the
hotel — a first-class establishment — several

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 185

similar cases occurred elsewhere, both in Ran-
goon, in Prome and in Moulmein. A story got
about the native quarter, and was fostered by
some mad fakir, that the god Siva was reborn
and that the cry was his call for victims; a
ghastly story, which led to an outbreak of da-
coity and gave the District Superintendent no
end of trouble."

" Was there anything unusual about the
bodies?"

" They all developed marks after death, as
though they had been strangled! The marks
were said all to possess a peculiar form, though
it was not appreciable to my eye ; and this, again,
was declared to be the five heads of Siva."

"Were the deaths confined to Europeans?"

" Oh, no. Several Burmans and others died
in the same way. At first there was a theory
that the victims had contracted leprosy and com-
mitted suicide as a result; 'but the medical evi-
dence disproved that. The Call of Siva became
a perfect nightmare throughout Burma."

" Did you ever hear it again, before this even-
ing? "

" Yes. I heard it on the Upper Irrawaddy one
clear, moonlight night, and a Colassie — a deck-
hand — leaped from the top deck of the steamer

186 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

aboard which I was traveling! My God! to
think that the fiend Fu-Manchu has brought
that to England ! "

"But brought what, Smith?" I cried, in per-
plexity. "What has he brought? An evil
spirit? A mental disease? What is it? What
can it be?"

"A new agent of death, Petrie! Something
born in a plague-spot of Burma — the home of
much that is unclean and much that is inexpli-
cable. Heaven grant that we be in time, and are
able to save Guthrie."

Chapter XT

THE train was late, and as our cab turned
out of Waterloo Station and began to as-
cend to the bridge, from a hundred
steeples rang out the gongs of midnight, the bell
of St. Paul's raised above them all to vie with the
deep voice of Big Ben.

I looked out from the cab window across the
river to where, towering above the Embankment,
that place of a thousand tragedies, the light of
some of London's greatest caravanserais formed a
sort of minor constellation. From the subdued
blaze that showed the public supper-rooms I
looked up to the hundreds of starry points mark-
ing the private apartments of those giant inns.

I thought how each twinkling window denoted
the presence of some bird of passage, some wan-
derer temporarily abiding in our midst. There,
floor piled upon floor above the chattering
throngs, were these less gregarious units, each
something of a mystery to his fellow-guests, each
m his separate cell; and each as remote from

187

188 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

real human companionship as if that cell were
fashioned, not in the bricks of London, but in
the rocks of Hindustan !

In one of those rooms Graham Guthrie might
at that moment be sleeping, all unaware that he
would awake to the Call of Siva, to the summons
of death. As we neared the Strand, Smith
stopped the cab, discharging the man outside
Sotheby's auction-rooms.

" One of the doctor's watch-dogs may be in
the foyer," he said thoughtfully, " and it might
spoil everything if we were seen to go to Guthrie's
rooms. There must be a back entrance to the
kitchens, and so on? "

" There is," I replied quickly. " I have seen
the vans delivering there. But have we time?"

" Yes. Lead on."

We walked up the Strand and hurried west-
ward. Into that narrow court, with its iron
posts and descending steps, upon which opens a
well-known wine-cellar, we turned. Then, going
parallel with the Strand, but on the Embank-
ment level, we ran round the back of the great
hotel, and came to double doors which were open.
An arc lamp illuminated the interior and a num-
ber of men were at work among the casks, crates
and packages stacked about the place. We
entered.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU: 189

" Hallo ! " cried a man in a white overall,
" where d'you think you're going? "

Smith grasped him by the arm.

" I want to get to the public part of the hotel
without being seen from the entrance hall/' he
said. "Will you please lead the way?"

" Here — " began the other, staring.

" Don't waste time ! " snapped my friend, in
that tone of authority which he knew so well
how to assume. u It's a matter of life and death.
Lead the way, I say ! "

"Police, sir?" asked the man civilly.

" Yes," said Smith; " hurry ! "

Off went our guide without further demur.
Skirting sculleries, kitchens, laundries and en-
gine-rooms, he led us through those mysterious
labyrinths which have no existence for the guest
above, but which contain the machinery that
renders these modern khans the Aladdin's palaces
they are. On a second-floor landing we met a
man in a tweed suit, to whom our cicerone pre-
sented us.

" Glad I met you, sir. Two gentlemen from
the police."

The man regarded us haughtily with a sus-
picious smile.

"Who are you?" he asked. "You're not
from Scotland Yard, at any rate ! "

190 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

Smith pulled out a card and thrust it into the
speaker's hand.

" If you are the hotel detective," he said,
"take us without delay to Mr. Graham Guth-
rie."

A marked change took place in the other's de-
meanor on glancing at the card in his hand.

" Excuse me, sir," he said deferentially, " but,
of course, I didn't know who I was speaking to.
We all have instructions to give you every as-
sistance."

" Is Mr. Guthrie in his room?"

"He's been in his room for some time, sir.
You will want to get there without being seen?
This way. We can join the lift on the third
floor."

Off we went again, with our new guide. In
the lift:

" Have you noticed anything suspicious about
the place to-night?" asked Smith.

" I have ! " was the startling reply. " That
accounts for your finding me where you did.
My usual post is in the lobby. But about eleven
o'clock, when the theater people began to come
in, I had a hazy sort of impression that some-
one or something slipped past in the crowd —
something that had no business in the hotel."

We got out of the lift.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 191!

*' I don't quite follow you," said Smith. " If
you thought you saw something entering, you
must have formed a more or less definite impres-
sion regarding it."

. "That's the funny part of the business,"
answered the man doggedly. "I didn't! But
as I stood at the top of the stairs I could have
sworn that there was something crawling up be-
hind a party — two ladies and two gentlemen."

" A dog, for instance? "

" It didn't strike me as being a dog, sir. Any-
way, when the party passed me, there was noth-
ing there. Mind you, whatever it was, it hadn't
come in by the front. I have made inquiries
everywhere, but without result." He stopped
abruptly. "No. 189 — Mr. Guthrie's door,
sir."

Smith knocked.

" Hallo ! " came a muffled voice ; " what do you
want? "

"Open the door! Don't delay; it is impor*
tank"

He turned to the hotel detective.

"Stay right there where you can watch the
stairs and the lift," he instructed; "and note
everyone and everything that passes this door
But whatever you see or hear, do nothing with-
out my orders."

192 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

The man moved off, and the door was opened.
Smith whispered in my ear:

" Some creature of Dr. Fu-Manchu is in the
hotel!"

Mr. Graham Guthrie, British resident in
North Bhutan, was a big, thick-set man — gray-
haired and florid, with widely opened eyes of the
true fighting blue, a bristling mustache and
prominent shaggy brows. Nayland Smith in-
troduced himself tersely, proffering his card and
an open letter.

" Those are my credentials, Mr. Guthrie," he
said ; " so no doubt you will realize that the busi-
ness which brings me and my friend, Dr. Petrie,
here at such an hour is of the first importance."

He switched off the light.

" There is no time for ceremony," he explained.
" It is now twenty-five minutes past twelve. At
half-past an attempt will be made upon your
life!"

" Mr. Smith," said the other, who, arrayed in
his pajamas, was seated on the edge of the bed,
"you alarm me very greatly. I may mention
that I was advised of your presence in England
this morning."

"Do you know anything respecting the per-
son called Fu-Manchu — Dr. Fu-Manchu?"

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHO 193'

" Only what I was told to-day — that he is
the agent of an advanced political group."

" It is opposed to his interests that you should
return to Bhutan. A more gullible agent would
be preferable. Therefore, unless you implicitly
obey my instructions, you will never leave Eng-
land!"

Graham Guthrie breathed quickly. I was
growing more used to the gloom, and I could
dimly discern him, his face turned towards Nay-
land Smith, whilst with his hand he clutched the
bed-rail. Such a visit as ours, I think, must
have shaken the nerve of any man.

" But, Mr. Smith," he said, " surely I am safe
enough here ! The place is full of American visi-
tors at present, and I have had to be content
with a room right at the top; so that the only
danger I apprehend is that of fire."

" There is another danger," replied Smith.
" The fact that you are at the top of the build-
ing enhances that danger. Do you recall any-
thing of the mysterious epidemic which broke
out in Rangoon in 1908 — the deaths due to the
Call of Siva?"

" I read of it in the Indian papers," said
Guthrie uneasily. "Suicides, were they not?"

" No ! " snapped Smith. " Murders ! "

Mi THE INSIDIOUS DB. FU-MANCHU

There was a brief silence.

" From what I recall of the cases," said Guth-
rie, "that seems impossible. In several instan-
ces the victims threw themselves from the
windows of locked rooms — and the windows
were quite inaccessible."

" Exactly," replied Smith ; and in the dim
light his revolver gleamed dully, as he placed it
on the small table beside the bed. " Except that
your door is unlocked, the conditions to-night
are identical. Silence, please, I hear a clock
striking."

It was Big Ben. It struck the half-hour,
leaving the stillness complete. In that room,
high above the activity which yet prevailed be-
low, high above the supping crowds in the hotel,
high above the starving crowds on the Embank-
ment, a curious chill of isolation swept about
me. Again I realized how, in the very heart of
the great metropolis, a man may be as far from
aid as in the heart of a desert. I was glad that
I was not alone in that room — marked with the
death-mark of Fu-Manchu; and I am certain
that Graham Guthrie welcomed his unexpected
company.

I may have mentioned the fact before, but on
this occasion it became so peculiarly evident to
me that I am constrained to record it here — I

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 193

refer to the sense of impending danger which
Invariably preceded a visit from Fu-Manchu.
(Even had I not known that an attempt was to
V)e made that night, I should have realized it, as,
strung to high tension, I waited in the dark-
less. Some invisible herald went ahead of the
dreadful Chinaman, proclaiming his coming to
every nerve in one's body. It was like a breath
i)f astral incense, announcing the presence of the
priests of death.

A wail, low but singularly penetrating, falling
n minor cadences to a new silence, came from
tomewhere close at hand.

" My God ! " hissed Guthrie, " what was that? "

"The Call of Siva," whispered Smith.
,; Don't stir, for your life!"

Guthrie was breathing hard.

I knew that we were three; that the hotel de-
fective was within hail; that there was a tele-
phone in the room; that the traffic of the Em-
bankment moved almost beneath us ; but I knew,
and am not ashamed to confess, that King Fear
lad icy fingers about my heart. It was awful
-»-that tense waiting — for — what? /

Three taps sounded very distinctly upon the
window.

Graham Guthrie started so as to shake the
bed.

196 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

" It's supernatural ! " he muttered — all Jhat
"was Celtic in his blood recoilirg from the omen.
" Nothing human can reach that window !?.?.

" S-sh ! " from Smith. " Don't stir."

The tapping was repeated.

Smith softly crossed the room. My heart was
beating painfully. He threw open the window.
Further inaction was impossible. I joined him ;
and we looked out into the empty air.

" Don't come too near, Petrie ! " he warned
over his shoulder.

One on either side of the open window, we
stood and looked down at the moving Embank-
ment lights, at the glitter of the Thames, at the
silhouetted buildings on the farther bank, with
the Shot Tower starting above them all.

Three taps sounded on the panes above us.

In all my dealings with Dr. Fu-Manchu I had
had to face nothing so uncanny as this. What
Burmese ghoul had he loosed? Was it outside,
in the air? Was it actually in the room?

" Don't let me go, Petrie ! " whispered Smith
suddenly. " Get a tight hold on me!"

That was the last straw; for I thought that
some dreadful fascination was impelling my
friend to hurl himself out! Wildly I threw my
arms about him, and Guthrie leaped forward to
help.

THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 197

Smith leaned from the window and looked up.

One choking cry he gave — smothered, inar-
ticulate — and I found him slipping from my
grip — being drawn out of the window —
drawn to his death!

" Hold him, Guthrie ! " I gasped hoarsely.
" My God, he's going ! Hold him ! "

My friend writhed in our grasp, and I saw
him stretch his arm upward. The crack of his
revolver came, and he collapsed on to the floor,
carrying me with him.

But as I fell I heard a scream above.
Smith's revolver went hurtling through the air,
and, hard upon it, went a black shape — flashing
past the open window into the gulf of the night.

" The light ! The light ! " I cried.

Guthrie ran and turned on the light. Nay-
land Smith, his eyes starting from his head, his
face swollen, lay plucking at a silken cord which
showed tight about his throat.

" It was a Thug! " screamed Guthrie. " Get
the rope off ! He's choking ! "

My hands a-twitch, I seized the strangling-
cord.

"A knife! Quick!" I cried. "I have lost
mine ! "

Guthrie ran to the dressing-tabl^ and passed
me an open penknife. I somehow forced thei

198 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

blade between the rope and Smith's swollen
neck, and severed the deadly silken thing.

Smith made a choking noise, and fell back,
swooning in my arms.

• ••««..

When, later, we stood looking down upon the
mutilated thing which had been brought in from
where it fell, Smith showed me a mark on the
brow — close beside the wound where his bullet
had entered.

" The mark of Kali," he said. " The man was
a phansigar — a religious strangler. Since
Fu-Manchu has dacoits in his service I might
have expected that he would have Thugs. A
group of these fiends would seem to have fled
into Burma; so that the mysterious epidemic in
Rangoon was really an outbreak of thuggee —
on slightly improved lines! I had suspected
something of the kind but, naturally, I had not
looked for Thugs near Rangoon. My unex-
pected resistance led the strangler to bungle the
rope. You have seen how it was fastened about
my throat? That was unscientific. The true
method, as practiced by the group operating in
Burma, was to throw the line about the victim's
neck and jerk him from the window. A man
leaning from an open window is very nicely
poised: it requires only a slight jerk to pitch

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 199

him forward. No loop was used, but a running
line, which, as the victim fell, remained in the
hand of the murderer. No clew ! Therefore we
see at once what commended the system to Fu-
Manchu."

Graham Guthrie, very pale, stood looking down
at the dead strangler.

" I owe you my life, Mr. Smith," he said. " II
you had come five minutes later — "

He grasped Smith's hand.

" You see," Guthrie continued, " no one
thought of looking for a Thug in Burma! And
no one thought of the roof! These fellows are
as active as monkeys, and where an ordinary
man would infallibly break his neck, they are
entirely at home. I might have chosen my room
especially for the business ! "

" He slipped in late this evening," said Smith.
" The hotel detective saw him, but 'these stran-
gles are as elusive as shadows, otherwise, de-
spite their having changed the scene of their
operations, not one could have survived."

" Didn't you mention a case of this kind on
the Irrawaddy?" I asked.

" Yes," was the reply ; " and I know of what]
you are thinking. The steamers of the Irra-
waddy flotilla have a corrugated-iron roof over
the top deck. The Thug must have been lying

200 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

up there as the Colassie passed on the deck be-
low.7'

" But, Smith, what is the motive of the Call? "
I continued.

" Partly religious," he explained, " and partly
to wake the victims ! You are perhaps going to
ask me how Dr. Fu-Manchu has obtained power
over such people as phansigarsf I can only re*
ply that Dr. Fu-Manchu has secret knowledge
of which, so far, we know absolutely nothing;
but, despite all, at last I begin to score."

"You do," I agreed; "but your victory took
you near to death."

" I owe my life to you, Petrie," he said.
" Once to your strength of arm, and once to — "

" Don't speak of her, Smith," I interrupted.
"Dr. Fu-Manchu may have discovered the part
she played! In which event — "

"Godhelnher!"

Chapter XVI

UPON the following day we were afoot
again, and shortly at handgrips with the
enemy. In retrospect, that restless time
offers a chaotic prospect, with no peaceful spot
amid its turmoils.

All that was reposeful in nature seemed to
have become an irony and a mockery to us —
wTho knew how an evil demigod had his sacri-
ficial altars amid our sweetest groves. This idea
ruled strongly in my mind upon that soft au-
tumnal day.

" The net is closing in," said Nayland Smith.

" Let us hope upon a big catch," I replied, with
a laugh.

Beyond where the Thames tided slumberously
seaward showed the roofs of Royal Windsor, the
castle towers showing through the autumn haze.
The peace of beautiful Thames-side was about
us.

This was one of the few tangible clews upon

which thus far wTe had chanced; but at last it

seemed indeed that we were narrowing the re-

201

202 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

sources of that enemy of the white race who waS
writing his name over England in characters of
blood. To capture Dr. Fu-Manchu we did not
hope; but at least there was every promise of
destroying one of the enemy's strongholds.

We had circled upon the map a tract of coun-
try cut by the Thames, with Windsor for its
center. Within that circle was the house from
which miraculously we had escaped — a house
used by the most highly organized group in the
history of criminology. So much we knew.
Even if we found the house, and this was likely
enough, to find it vacated by Fu-Manchu and his
mysterious servants we were prepared. But it
would be a base destroyed.

We were working upon a methodical plan, and
although our cooperators were invisible, these
numbered no fewer than twelve — all of them
experienced men. Thus far we had drawn
blank, but the place for which Smith and I were
making now came clearly into view : an old man-
sion situated in extensive walled grounds.
Leaving the river behind us, we turned sharply
to the right along a lane flanked by a high wall.
On an open patch of ground, as we passed, I
noted a gypsy caravan. An old woman was
seated on the steps, her wrinkled face bent, her
chin resting in the palm of her hand.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 203

I scarcely glanced at her, but pressed on, nor
did I notice that my friend no longer was beside
me. I was all anxiety to come to some point
from whence I might obtain a view of the house ;
all anxiety to know if this was the abode of our
mysterious enemy — the place where he worked
amid his weird company, where he bred his
deadly scorpions and his bacilli, reared his
poisonous fungi, from whence he dispatched
his murder ministers. Above all, perhaps, I
wondered if this would prove to be the hiding-
place of the beautiful slave girl who was such a
potent factor in the Doctor's plans, but a two-
edged sword which yet we hoped to turn upon
Fu-Manchu. Even in the hands of a master, a
woman's beauty is a dangerous weapon.

A cry rang out behind me. I turned quickly.
And a singular sight met my gaze.

Nayland Smith was engaged in a furious
struggle with the old gypsy woman! His long
arms clasped about her, he was roughly dragging
her out into the roadway, she fighting like a wild
thing — silently, fiercely.

Smith often surprised me, but at that sight,
frankly, I thought that he was become bereft of
reason. I ran back; and I had almost reached
the scene of this incredible contest, and Smith
now was evidently hard put to it to hold his own

204 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

when a man, swarthy, with big rings in his ears,
leaped from the caravan.

One quick glance he threw in our direction, and
made off towards the river.

Smith twisted round upon me, never releasing
his hold of the woman.

" After him, Petrie ! " he cried. " After him.
Don't let him escape. It's a dacoit ! "

My brain in a confused whirl; my mind yet
disposed to a belief that my friend had lost his
senses, the word " dacoit " was sufficient.

I started down the road after the fleetly run-
ning man. Never once did he glance behind
him, so that he evidently had occasion to fear
pursuit. The dusty road rang beneath my fly-
ing footsteps. That sense of fantasy, which
claimed me often enough in those days of our
struggle with the titantic genius whose victory
meant the victory of the yellow races over the
white, now had me fast in its grip again. I was
an actor in one of those dream-scenes of the
grim Fu-Manchu drama.

Out over the grass and down to the river's
brink ran the gypsy who was no gypsy, but one
of that far more sinister brotherhood, the da-
coits. I was close upon his heels. But I was
not prepared for him to leap in among the
rushes at the margin of the stream; and seeing

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 205

him do this I pulled up quickly. Straight into
the water he plunged; and I saw that he held
some object in his hand. He waded out; he
dived; and as I gained the bank and looked to
right and left he had vanished completely. Only
ever-widening rings showed where he had been.

I had him.

For directly he rose to the surface he would be
visible from either bank, and with the police
whistle which I carried I could, if necessary,
summon one of the men in hiding across the
stream. I waited. A wild-fowl floated serenely
past, untroubled by this strange invasion of his
precincts. A full minute I waited. From the
lane behind me came Smith's voice :

" Don't let him escape, Petrie ! "

Never lifting my eyes from the water, I waved
my hand reassuringly. But still the dacoit did
not rise. I searched the surface in all direc-
tions as far as my eyes could reach ; but no swim-
mer showed above it. Then it was that I con-
cluded he had dived too deeply, become entan-
gled in the weeds and was drowned. With a
final glance to right and left and some feeling
of awe at this sudden tragedy — this grim
going out of a life at glorious noonday — I
turned away. Smith had the woman securely;
but I had not taken five steps towards him when

206 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

a faint splash behind warned me. Instinctively
I ducked. From whence that saving instinct
arose I cannot surmise, but to it I owed my life.
For as I rapidly lowered my head, something
hummed past me, something that flew out over
the grass bank, and fell with a jangle upon the
dusty roadside. A knife !

I turned and bounded back to the river's
brink. I heard a faint cry behind me, which
could only have come from the gypsy woman.
Nothing disturbed the calm surface of the water.
The reach was lonely of rowers. Out by the
farther bank a girl was poling a punt along, and
her white-clad figure was the only living thing
that moved upon the river within the range of
the most expert knife-thrower.

To say that I was nonplused is to say less
than the truth; I was amazed. That it was the
dacoit who had shown me this murderous at-
tention I could not doubt. But where in
Heaven's name was he? He could not humanly
have remained below water for so long; yet he
certainly was not above, was not upon the sur-
face, concealed amongst the reeds, nor hidden
upon the bank.

There, in the bright sunshine, a consciousness
of the eerie possessed me. It was with an un-
comfortable feeling that my phantom foe might

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 207

be aiming a second knife at my back that I
turned away and hastened towards Smith. My
fearful expectations were not realized, and I
picked up the little weapon which had so nar-
rowly missed me, and with it in my hand rejoined
my friend.

He was standing with one arm closely clasped
about the apparently exhausted woman, and her
dark eyes were fixed upon him with an ex-
traordinary expression.

" What does it mean, Smith? " I began.

But he interrupted me.

" Where is the dacoit? " he demanded rapidly.

" Since he seemingly possesses the attributes
of a fish," I replied, " I cannot pretend to say."

The gypsy woman lifted her eyes to mine and
laughed. Her laughter was musical, not that of
such an old hag as Smith held captive; it was
familiar, too.

I started and looked closely into the wizened
face.

" He's tricked you," said Smith, an angry note
in his voice. "What is that you have in your
lhand?"

I showed him the knife, and told him how it
had come into my possession.

" I know," he rapped. " I saw it. He was in
the water not three yards from where you stood.

208 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

You must have seen him. Was there nothing
visible?"

" Nothing."

The woman laughed again, and again I won-
dered.

"A wild-fowl," I added; "nothing else."

" A wild-fowl," snapped Smith. " If you will
consult your recollections of the habits of wild-
fowl you will see that this particular specimen
was a vara avis. It's an old trick, Petrie, but
a good one, for it is used in decoying. A dacoit's
head was concealed in that wild-fowl ! It's use-
less. He has certainly made good his escape by
now."

" Smith," I said, somewhat crestfallen, " why
are you detaining this gyspy woman? "

" Gypsy woman ! " he laughed, hugging her
tightly as she made an impatient movement.
" Use your eyes, old man."

He jerked the frowsy wig from her head, and
beneath was a cloud of disordered hair that shim-
mered in the sunlight.

" A wet sponge will do the rest," he said.

Into my eyes, widely opened in wonder, looked
the dark eyes of the captive; and beneath the
disguise I picked out the charming features of
the slave girl. There were tears on the whitened
lashes, and she was submissive now.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 209

" This time," said my friend hardly, " we have
fairly captured her — and we will hold her."

From somewhere up-stream came a faint call.

"The dacoit!"

Nayland Smith's lean body straightened; he
stood alert, strung up.

Another call answered, and a third responded.
Then followed the flatly shrill note of a police
whistle, and I noted a column of black vapor
rising beyond the wall, mounting straight to
heaven as the smoke of a welcome offering.

The surrounded mansion was in flames !

" Curse it ! " rapped Smith. " So this time we
were right. But, of course, he has had ample
opportunity to remove his effects. I knew that.
The man's daring is incredible. He has given
himself till the very last moment — and we
blundered upon two of the outposts."

" I lost one."

" No matter. We have the other. I expect no
further arrests, and the house will have been so
well fired by the Doctor's servants that nothing
can save it. I fear its ashes will afford us no
clew, Petrie; but we have secured a lever which
should serve to disturb Fu-Manchu's world."

He glanced at the queer figure which hung
submissively in his arms. She looked up
proudly.

210 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

" You need not hold me so tight," she said, in
her soft voice. " I will come with you."

That I moved amid singular happenings, you,
who have borne with me thus far, have learned,
and that I witnessed many curious scenes ; but of
the many such scenes in that race-drama wherein
Nayland Smith and Dr. Fu-Manchu played the
leading parts, I remember none more bizarre than
the one at my rooms that afternoon.

Without delay, and without taking the Scot-
land Yard men into our confidence, we had hur-
ried our prisoner back to London, for my friend's
authority was supreme. A strange trio we were,
and one which excited no little comment ; but the
journey came to an end at last. Now we were
in my unpretentious sitting-room — the room
wherein Smith first had unfolded to me the story
of Dr. Fu-Manchu and of the great secret society
which sought to upset the balance of the world
— to place Europe and America beneath the
scepter of Cathay.

I sat with my elbows upon the writing-table,
my chin in my hands; Smith restlessly paced the
floor, relighting his blackened briar a dozen times
in as many minutes. In the big arm-chair the
pseudogypsy was curled up. A brief toilet had
converted the wizened old woman's face into that
of a fascinatingly pretty girl. Wildly pictur-

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 211

esque she looked in her ragged Romany garb.
She held a cigarette in her fingers and watched
us through lowered lashes.

Seemingly, with true Oriental fatalism, she
was quite reconciled to her fate, and ever and
anon she would bestow upon me a glance from
her beautiful eyes which few men, I say with
confidence, could have sustained unmoved.
Though I could not be blind to the emotions of
that passionate Eastern soul, yet I strove not to
think of them. Accomplice of an arch-murderer
she might be; but she was dangerously lovely.

" That man who was with you," said Smith,
suddenly turning upon her, " was in Burma up
till quite recently. He murdered a fisherman
thirty miles above Prome only a month before I
left. The D.S.P. had placed a thousand rupees
on his head. Am I right? "

The girl shrugged her shoulders.

" Suppose — What then? " she asked.

" Suppose I handed you over to the police? "
suggested Smith. But he spoke without convic-
tion, for in the recent past we both had owed our
lives to this girl.

" As you please," she replied. " The police
Would learn nothing."

"You do not belong to the Far East," my
friend said abruptly. " You may have Eastern

212 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

blood in your veins, but you are no kin of Fu-
Manchu."

" That is true," she admitted, and knocked
the ash from her cigarette.

" Will you tell me where to find Fu-Manchu? "

She shrugged her shoulders again, glancing
eloquently in my direction.

Smith walked to the door.

" I must make out my report, Petrie," he said.
" Look after the prisoner."

And as the door closed softly behind him I
knew what was expected of me; but, honestly,
I shirked my responsibility. What attitude
should I adopt? How should I go about my deli-
cate task ? In a quandary, I stood watching the
girl whom singular circumstances saw captive
in my rooms.

" You do not think we would harm you? " I
began awkwardly. " No harm shall come to you.
Why will you not trust us ? "

She raised her brilliant eyes.

" Of what avail has your protection been to
some of those others/' she said; "those others
whom he has sought for? "

Alas ! it had been of none, and I knew it well.
I thought I grasped the drift of her words.

" You mean that if you speak, Fu-Manchu will
find a way of killing you?"

TkE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 213

" Of killing me! " she flashed scornfully. " Do
I seem one to fear for myself? "

"Then what do you fear? " I asked, in sur-
prise.

She looked at me oddly.

" When I was seized and sold for a slave/' she
answered slowly, " my sister was taken, too, and
my brother — a child." She spoke the word
with a tender intonation, and her slight accent
rendered it the more soft. " My sister died in
the desert. My brother lived. Better, far bet-
ter, that he had died, too."

Her words impressed me intensely.

"Of what are you speaking?" I questioned.
" You speak of slave-raids, of the desert. Where
did these things take place? Of what country
are you? "

"Does it matter?" she questioned in turn.
" Of what country am I? A slave has no coun-
try, no name."

" No name ! " I cried.

"You may call me Karamaneh," she said.
" As Karamaneh I was sold to Dr. Fu-Manchu,
and my brother also he purchased. We were
cheap at the price he paid." She laughed
shortly, wildly.

" But he has spent a lot of money to educate
me- My brother is all that is left to me in the

214 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

world, to love, and he is in the power of Dr. Fu-
Manchu. You understand? It is upon him the
blow will fall. You ask me to fight against Fu-
Manchu. You talk of protection. Did your pro-
tection save Sir Crichton Davey?"

I shook my head sadly.

"You understand now why I cannot disobey
my master's orders — why, if I would, I dare not
betray him."

I walked to the window and looked out. How
could I answer her arguments? What could 1
say? I heard the rustle of her ragged skirts,
and she who called herself Karamaneh stood be-
side me. She laid her hand upon my arm.

" Let me go," she pleaded. " He will kill him I
He will kill him ! "

Her voice shook with emotion.

" He cannot revenge himself upon your
brother when you are in no way to blame," I said
angrily. " We arrested you ; you are not here
of your own free will."

She drew her breath sharply, clutching at my
arm, and in her eyes I could read that she was
forcing her mind to some arduous decision.

" Listen." She was speaking rapidly, nerv-
ously. "If I help you to take Dr. Fu-Manchu
— tell you where he is to be found alone — will
you promise me, solemnly promise me, that you

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 215

will immediately go to the place where I shall
guide you and release my brother ; that you will
let us both go free? "

"I will/' I said, without hesitation. "You
may rest assured of it."

" But there is a condition," she added.

"What is it?"

" When I have told you where to capture him
you must release me."

I hesitated. Smith often had accused me of
Weakness where this girl was concerned. What
now was my plain duty? That she would utterly
decline to speak under any circumstances unless
it suited her to do so I felt assured. If she
spoke the truth, in her proposed bargain there
was no personal element; her conduct I now
viewed in a new light. Humanity, I thought,
dictated that I accept her proposal ; policy also.

" I agree," I said, and looked into her eyes,
which were aflame now with emotion, an excite-
ment perhaps of anticipation, perhaps of fear.

She laid her hands upon my shoulders.

" You will be careful? " she said pleadingly.

" For your sake," I replied, " I shall."

"Not for my sake."

"Then for your brother's."

" No." Her voice had sunk to a whisper.
tt For your own."

Chapter XVII

A COOL breeze met us, blowing from the
lower reaches of the Thames. Far behind
us twinkled the dim lights of Low's Cot-
tages, the last regular habitations abutting upon
the marshes. Between us and the cottages
stretched half-a-mile of lush land through which
at this season there were, however, numerous
dry paths. Before us the flats again, a dull,
monotonous expanse beneath the moon, with the
promise of the cool breeze that the river flowed
round the bend ahead. It was very quiet. Only
the sound of our footsteps, as Nayland Smith
and I tramped steadily towards our goal, broke
the stillness of that lonely place.

Not once but many times, within the last
twenty minutes, I had thought that we were ill-
advised to adventure alone upon the capture of
the formidable Chinese doctor; but we were fol-
lowing out our compact with Karamaneh; and
one of her stipulations had been that the police
must not be acquainted with her share in the
matter.

A light came into view far ahead of us.

" That's the light, Petrie," said Smith. " If

216

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 217

we keep that straight before us, according to our
information we shall strike the hulk."

I grasped the revolver in my pocket, and the
presence of the little weapon was curiously re-
assuring. I have endeavored, perhaps in ex-
tenuation of my own fears, to explain how about
Dr. Fu-Manchu there rested an atmosphere of
horror, peculiar, unique. He was not as other
men. The dread that he inspired in all with
whom he came in contact, the terrors which he
controlled and hurled at whomsoever cumbered
his path, rendered him an object supremely
sinister. I despair of conveying to those who
may read this account any but the coldest con-
ception of the man's evil power.

Smith stopped suddenly and grasped my arm.
We stood listening.

"What?" I asked.

" You heard nothing? "

I shook my head.

Smith was peering back over the marshes in
his oddly alert way. He turned to me, and his
tanned face wore a peculiar expression.

"You don't think it's a trap?" he jerked.
" We are trusting her blindly."

Strange it may seem, but something within
me rose in arms against the innuendo.

" I don't," I said shortly.

218 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

He nodded. We pressed on.

Ten minutes' steady tramping brought us
within sight of the Thames. Smith and I both
had noticed how Fu-Manchu's activities centered
always about the London river. Undoubtedly it
was his highway, his line of communication,
along which he moved his mysterious forces.
The opium den off Shadwell Highway, the man-
sion upstream, at that hour a smoldering shell;
now the hulk lying off the marshes. Always he
made his headquarters upon the river. It was
significant; and even if to-night's expedition
should fail, this was a clew for our future
guidance.

"Bear to the right," directed Smith. "We
must reconnoiter before making our attack."

We took a path that led directly to the river
bank. Before us lay the gray expanse of water,
and out upon it moved the busy shipping of the
great mercantile city. But this life of the river
seemed widely removed from us. The lonely
spot where we stood had no kinship with human
activity. Its dreariness illuminated by the bril-
I liant moon, it looked indeed a fit setting for an
act in such a drama as that wherein we played
our parts. When I had lain in the East End
opium den, when upon such another night as
this I had looked out upon a peaceful Norfolk

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 219

countryside, the same knowledge of aloofness, of
utter detachment from the world of living men,
had come to me.

Silently Smith stared out at the distant mov-
ing lights.

" Karamaneh merely means a slave," he said
irrelevantly.

I made no comment.

" There's the hulk," he added.

The bank upon which we stood dipped in mud
slopes to the level of the running tide. Seaward
it rose higher, and by a narrow inlet — for we
perceived that we were upon a kind of promon-
tory— a rough pier showed. Beneath it was a
shadowy shape in the patch of gloom which the
moon threw far out upon the softly eddying
water. Only one dim light was visible amid
this darkness.

" That will be the cabin," said Smith.

Acting upon our prearranged plan, we turned
and walked up on to the staging above the hulk.
A wooden ladder led out and down to the deck
below, and was loosely lashed to a ring on the
pier. With every motion of the tidal waters the
ladder rose and fell, its rings creaking harshly;
against the crazy railing.

" How are we going to get down without being
detected?" whispered Smith.

220 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

" We've got to risk it," I said grimly. ,

Without further words my friend climbed
around on to the ladder and commenced to de-
scend. I waited until his head disappeared be-
low the level, and, clumsily enough, prepared
to follow him.

The hulk at that moment giving an unusually
heavy heave, I stumbled, and for one breathless
moment looked down upon the glittering surface
streaking the darkness beneath me. My foot had
slipped, and but that I had a firm grip upon
the top rung, that instant, most probably, had
marked the end of my share in the fight with
Fu-Manchu. As it was I had a narrow escape.
I felt something slip from my hip pocket, but the
weird creaking of the ladder, the groans of the
laboring hulk, and the lapping of the waves
about the staging drowned the sound of the
splash as my revolver dropped into the river.

Rather, white-faced, I think, I joined Smith on
the deck. He had witnessed my accident, but —

" We must risk it," he whispered in my ear.
" We dare not turn back now."

He plunged into the semi-darkness, making
for the cabin, I perforce following.

At the bottom of the ladder we came fully
into the light streaming out from the singular
apartments at the entrance to which we found

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 221

ourselves. It was fitted up as a laboratory. A
glimpse I had of shelves loaded with jars aud
bottles, of a table strewn with scientific para-
phernalia, with retorts, with tubes of extraor-
dinary shapes, holding living organisms, and
with instruments — some of them of a form un-
known to my experience. I saw too that books,
papers and rolls of parchment littered the bare
wooden floor. Then Smith's voice rose above the
confused sounds about me, incisive, command-
ing:

" I have you covered, Dr. Fu-Manchu ! "

For Fu-Manchu sat at the table.

The picture that he presented at that moment
is one which persistently clings in my memory.
In his long, yellow robe, his masklike, intellec-
tual face bent forward amongst the riot of singu-
lar objects upon the table, his great, high brow
gleaming in the light of the shaded lamp above
him, and with the abnormal eyes, filmed and
green, raised to us, he seemed a figure from the
realms of delirium.

But, most amazing circumstance of all, he and
his surroundings tallied, almost identically, with
the dream-picture which had come to me as I
lay chained in the cell!

Some of the large jars about the place held
anatomy specimens. A faint smell of opium

222 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

hung in the air, and playing with the tassel of
one of the cushions upon which, as upon a divan,
Fu-Manchu was seated, leaped and chattered a
little marmoset.

That was an electric moment. I was pre
pared for anything — for anything except fo?~
what really happened.

The doctor's wonderful, evil face betrayed no
hint of emotion. The lids flickered over the
filmed eyes, and their greenness grew momen-
tarily brighter, and filmed over again.

" Put up your hands ! " rapped Smith, " and
attempt no tricks." His voice quivered with ex-
citement. " The game's up, Fu-Manchu. Find
something to tie him up with, Petrie."

I moved forward to Smith's side, and was
about to pass him in the narrow doorway. The
hulk moved beneath our feet like a living thing
— groaning, creaking — and the water lapped
about the rotten woodwork with a sound in-
finitely dreary.

" Put up your hands ! ?? ordered Smith impera-
tively.

Fu-Manchu slowly raised his hands, and a
smile dawned upon the impassive features — a
smile that had no mirth in it, only menace, re-
vealing as it did his even, discolored teeth, but
leaving the filmed eyes inanimate, dull, inhuman.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 223

He spoke softly, sibilantly.

" I would advise Dr. Petrie to glance behind
him before he moves."

Smith's keen gray eyes never for a moment
quitted the speaker. The gleaming barrel moved
not a hair's-breadth. But I glanced quickly over
my shoulder — and stifled a cry of pure horror.

A wicked, pock-marked face, with wolfish
fangs bared, and jaundiced eyes squinting
obliquely into mine, was within two inches of
me. A lean, brown hand and arm, the great
thews standing up like cords, held a crescent-
shaped knife a fraction of an inch above my
jugular vein. A slight movement must have
dispatched me; a sweep of the fearful weapon,
I doubt not, would have severed my head from
my body.

" Smith ! " I whispered hoarsely, " don't look
around. For God's sake keep him covered. But
a dacoit has his knife at my throat ! "

Then, for the first time, Smith's hand trembled.
But his glance never wavered from the malignant,
emotionless countenance of Dr. Fu-Manchu. He
clenched his teeth hard, so that the muscles stood
out prominently upon his jaw.

I suppose that silence which followed my aw-
ful discovery prevailed but a few seconds. To
me those seconds were each a lingering death.

224: ,THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

There, below, in that groaning hulk, I knew more
of icy terror than any of our meetings with the
murder-group had brought to me before; and
through my brain throbbed a thought: the girl
had betrayed us!

" You supposed that I was alone? " suggested
Fu-Manchu. " So I was."

Yet no trace of fear had broken through the
impassive yellow mask when we had entered.

" But my faithful servant followed you," he
added. " I thank him. The honors, Mr. Smith,
are mine, I think? "

Smith made no reply. I divined that he was
thinking furiously. Fu-Manchu moved his
hand to caress the marmoset, which had leaped
playfully upon his shoulder, and crouched there
gibing at us in a whistling voice.

" Don't stir ! " said Smith savagely. " I warn
you ! "

Fu-Manchu kept his hand raised.

" May I ask you how you discovered my re-
treat? " he asked.

" This hulk has been watched since dawn,"
lied Smith brazenly.

" So? " The Doctor's filmed eyes cleared for
a moment. " And to-day you compelled me to
burn a house, and you have captured one of my

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 225

people, too. I congratulate you. She would noli
betray me though lashed with scorpions."

The great gleaming knife was so near to my
neck that a sheet of notepaper could scarcely
have been slipped between blade and vein, I
think; but my heart throbbed even more wildly
when I heard those words.

" An impasse/' said Fu-Manchu. " I have a
proposal to make. I assume that you would not
accept my word for anything? "

" I would not," replied Smith promptly.

a Therefore," pursued the Chinaman, and the
occasional guttural alone marred his perfect
English, " I must accept yours. Of your re-
sources outside this cabin I know nothing. You,
I take it, know as little of mine. My Burmese
friend and Doctor Petrie will lead the way, then ;
you and I will follow. We will strike out across
the marsh for, say, three hundred yards. You
will then place your pistol on the ground,
pledging me your word to leave it there. I shall
further require your assurance that you will
make no attempt upon me until I have retraced
my steps. I and my good servant will with-
draw, leaving you, at the expiration of the
specified period, to act as you see fit. Is it
agreed?"

226 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

Smith hesitated. Then :

" The dacoit must leave his knife also," he
stipulated.

Fu-Manchu smiled his evil smile again.

"Agreed. Shall I lead the way?"

" No ! " rapped Smith. " Petrie and the da-
coit first; then you; I last."

A guttural word of command from Fu-Man-
chu, and we left the cabin, with its evil odors,
its mortuary specimens, and its strange instru-
ments, and in the order arranged mounted to
the deck.

" It will be awkward on the ladder," said Fu-
Manchu. " Dr. Petrie, I will accept your word
to adhere to the terms."

" I promise," I said, the words almost choking
me.

We mounted the rising and dipping ladder,
all reached the pier, and strode out across the
flats, the Chinaman always under close cover of
Smith's revolver. Round about our feet, now
leaping ahead, now gamboling back, came and
went the marmoset. The dacoit, dressed solely
in a dark loin-cloth, walked beside me, carrying
his huge knife, and sometimes glancing at me
with his blood-lustful eyes. Never before, I
venture to say, had an autumn moon lighted such
a scene in that place.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 227

" Here we part," said Fu-Manchu, and spoke
another word to his follower.

The man threw his knife upon the ground.

" Search him, Petrie," directed Smith. " He
may have a second concealed."

The Doctor consented ; and I passed my hands
over the man's scanty garments.

" Now search Fu-Manchu."

This also I did. And never have I experienced
a similar sense of revulsion from any human
being. I shuddered, as though I had touched a
venomous reptile.

Smith drew down his revolver.

" I curse myself for an honorable fool," he
said. " No one could dispute my right to shoot
you dead where you stand."

Knowing him as I did, I could tell from the
suppressed passion in Smith's voice that only
by his unhesitating acceptance of my friend's
word, and implicit faith in his keeping it, had
Dr. Fu-Manchu escaped just retribution at that
moment. Fiend though he was, I admired his
courage ; for all this he, too, must have known.

The Doctor turned, and with the dacoit walked
back. Nayland Smith's next move filled me with
surprise. For just as, silently, I was thanking
God for my escape, my friend began shedding
his coat, collar and waistcoat.

228 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" Pocket your valuables, and do the same/' he
muttered hoarsely. " We have a poor chance,
but we are both fairly fit. To-night, Petrie, we
literally have to run for our lives."

We live in a peaceful age, wherein it falls to
the lot of few men to owe their survival to their
fleetness of foot. At Smith's words I realized
in a flash that such was to be our fate to-night.

I have said that the hulk lay off a sort of prom-
ontory. East and west, then, we had nothing
to hope for. To the south was Fu-Manchu ; and
even as, stripped of our heavier garments, we
started to run northward, the weird signal of a
dacoit rose on the night and was answered —
was answered again.

" Three, at least," hissed Smith ; " three armed
dacoits. Hopeless."

" Take the revolver," I cried. " Smith, it's — "

" No," he rapped, through clenched teeth. " A
servant of the Crown in the East makes his
motto : i Keep your word, though it break your
neck ! ' I don't think we need fear it being used
against us. Fu-Manchu avoids noisy methods/'

So back we ran, over the course by which,
earlier, we had come. It was, roughly, a mile to
the first building — a deserted cottage — and an-
other quarter of a mile to any that was occupied.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 222

Our chance of meeting a living soul, other than
Fu-Manchu's dacoits, was practically nil.

At first we ran easily, for it was the second
half-mile that would decide our fate. The pro-
fessional murderers who pursued us ran like
panthers, I knew ; and I dare not allow my mind
to dwell upon those yellow figures with the
curved, gleaming knives. For a long time
neither of us looked back.

On we ran, and on — silently, doggedly.

Then a hissing breath from Smith warned me
what to expect.

Should I, too, look back? Yes. It was im-
possible to resist the horrid fascination.

I threw a quick glance over my shoulder.

And never while I live shall I forget what I
saw. Two of the pursuing dacoits had outdis-
tanced their fellow (or fellows), and were actu-
ally within three hundred yards of us.

More like dreadful animals they looked than
human beings, running bent forward, with their
faces curiously uptilted. The brilliant moon-
light gleamed upon bared teeth, as I could see,
even at that distance, even in that quick, agonized
glance, and it gleamed upon the crescent-shaped
knives.

" As hard as you can go now," panted Smith.

'230 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

"We must make an attempt to break into the
empty cottage. Only chance."

I had never in my younger days been a notable
runner; for Smith I cannot speak. But I am
confident that the next half-mile was done in
time that would not have disgraced a crack man.
Not once again did either of us look back. Yard
upon yard we raced forward together. My heart
seemed to be bursting. My leg muscles throbbed
with pain. At last, with the empty cottage in
sight, it came to that pass with me when another
three yards looks as unattainable as three miles.
Once I stumbled.

" My God ! " came from Smith weakly.

But I recovered myself. Bare feet pattered
close upon our heels, and panting breaths told
how even Fu-Manchu's bloodhounds were hard
put to it by the killing pace we had made.

" Smith," I whispered, " look in front. Some-
one ! "

As through a red mist I had seen a dark shape
detach itself from the shadows of the cottage,
and merge into them again. It could only be
another dacoit; but Smith, not heeding, or not
hearing, my faintly whispered words, crashed
open the gate and hurled himself blindly at the
door.

It burst open before him with a resounding

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 231

boom, and lie pitched forward into the interior
darkness. Flat upon the floor he lay, for as,
with a last effort, I gained the threshold and
dragged myself within, I almost fell over his
recumbent body.

Madly I snatched at the door. His foot held
it open. I kicked the foot away, and banged
the door to. As I turned, the leading dacoit, his
eyes starting from their sockets, his face the
face of a demon, leaped wildly through the gate-
way.

That Smith had burst the latch I felt assured,
but by some divine accident my weak hands
found the bolt. With the last ounce of strength
spared to me I thrust it home in the rusty
socket — as a full six inches of shining steel
split the middle panel and protruded above my
head.

I dropped, sprawling, beside my friend.

A terrific blow shattered every pane of glass
in the solitary window, and one of the grinning
animal faces looked in.

" Sorry, old man," whispered Smith, and his
I voice was barely audible. Weakly he grasped
my hand. " My fault. I shouldn't have let you
come." '

From the corner of the room where the black
shadows lay flicked a long tongue of flamev

232 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

Muffled, staccato, came the report. And the yel-
low face at the window was blotted out.

One wild cry, ending in a rattling gasp, told
of a dacoit gone to his account.

A gray figure glided past me and was sil-
houetted against the broken window.

Again the pistol sent its message into the night,
and again came the reply to tell how well and
truly that message had been delivered.

In the stillness, intense by sharp contrast, the
sound of bare soles pattering upon the path
outside stole to me. Two runners, I thought
there were, so that four dacoits must have been
upon our trail. The room was full of pungent
smoke. I staggered to my feet as the gray figure
with the revolver turned towards me. Some-
thing familiar there was in that long, gray
garment, and now I perceived why I had thought
so.

It was my gray rain-coat.

" Karamaneh," I whispered.

And Smith, with difficulty, supporting himself
upright, and holding fast to the ledge beside the
door, muttered something hoarsely, which
sounded like " God bless her ! "

The girl, trembling now, placed her hands upon
my shoulders with that quaint, pathetic gesture
peculiarly her own.

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 233

" I followed you," she said. " Did you not
know I should follow you? But I had to hide
because of another who was following also. I
had but just reached this place when I saw you
running towards me."

She broke off and turned to Smith.

"This is your pistol/' she said naively. "I
found it in your bag. Will you please take
it!"

He took it without a word. Perhaps he could
not trust himself to speak.

" Now go. Hurry ! " she said. " You are not
safe yet."

"But you?" I asked.

" You have failed," she replied. " I must go
back to him. There is no other way."

Strangely sick at heart for a man who has just
had a miraculous escape from death, I opened
the door. Coatless, disheveled figures, my friend
and I stepped out into the moonlight.

Hideous under the pale rays lay the two dead
men, their glazed eyes upcast to the peace of the
blue heavens. Karamaneh had shot to kill, for
both had bullets in their brains. If God ever
planned a more complex nature than hers — a
nature more tumultuous with conflicting pas-
sions, I cannot conceive of it. Yet her beauty
was of the sweetest; and in some respects she had

234 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

the heart of a child — this girl who could shoot
so straight.

"We must send the police to-night," said
Smith. " Or the papers — "

" Hurry/' came the girl's voice commandingly
from the darkness of the cottage.

It was a singular situation. My very soul re-
belled against it. But what could we do?

" Tell us where we can communicate," began
Smith.

" Hurry. I shall be suspected. Do you want
him to kill me ! "

We moved away. All was very still now, and
the lights glimmered faintly ahead. Not a wisp
of cloud brushed the moon's disk.

" Good-night, Karamaneh," I whispered softly.

Chapter XVIII

TO pursue further the adventure on the
marshes would be a task at once useless
and thankless. In its actual and in its
dramatic significance it concluded with our
parting from Karamaneh. And in that parting
I learned what Shakespeare meant by " Sweet
Sorrow."

There was a world, I learned, upon the confines
of which I stood, a world whose very existence
hitherto had been unsuspected. Not the least of
the mysteries which peeped from the darkness
was the mystery of the heart of Karamaneh. I
sought to forget her. I sought to remember her.
Indeed, in the latter task I found one more con-
genial, yet, in the direction and extent of the
ideas which it engendered, one that led me to
a precipice.

East and West may not intermingle. As a
student of world-policies, as a physician, I ad-
mitted, could not deny, that truth. Again, if
Karamaneh were to be credited, she had come to
Fu-Manchu a slave; had fallen into the hands

235

236 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

of the raiders; had crossed the desert with the
slave-drivers; had known the house of the slave-
dealer. Could it be? With the fading of the
crescent of Islam I had thought such things to
have passed.

But if it were so?

At the mere thought of a girl so deliciously
beautiful in the brutal power of slavers, I found
myself grinding my teeth — closing my eyes in
a futile attempt to blot out the pictures called
up.

Then, at such times, I would find myself dis-
crediting her story. Again, I would find myself
wondering, vaguely, why such problems persist-
ently haunted my mind. But, always, my heart
had an answer. And I was a medical man, who
sought to build up a family practice ! — who, in
short, a very little time ago, had thought him-
self past the hot follies of youth and entered
upon that staid phase of life wherein the daily
problems of the medical profession hold absolute
sway and such seductive follies as dark eyes and
red lips find no place — are excluded !

But it is foreign from the purpose of this plain
record to enlist sympathy for the recorder. The
topic upon which, here, I have ventured to touch
was one fascinating enough to me ; I cannot hope
that it holds equal charm for any other. Let

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 237

us return to that which it is my duty to narrate
and let us forget my brief digression.

It is a fact, singular, but true, that few
Londoners know London. Under the guidance
of my friend, Nayland Smith, I had learned, since
his return from Burma, how there are haunts
in the very heart of the metropolis whose ex-
istence is unsuspected by all but the few ; places
unknown even to the ubiquitous copy-hunting
pressman.

Into a quiet thoroughfare not two minutes'
walk from the pulsing life of Leicester Square,
Smith led the way. Before a door sandwiched in
between two dingy shop-fronts he paused and
turned to me.

" Whatever you see or hear," he cautioned,
" express no surprise."

A cab had dropped us at the corner. We both
wore dark suits and fez caps with black silk
tassels. My complexion had been artificially re-
duced to a shade resembling the deep tan of my
friend's. He rang the bell beside the door.

Almost immediately it was opened by a negro
woman — gross, hideously ugly.

Smith uttered something in voluble Arabic.
As a linguist his attainments were a constant
source of surprise. The jargons of the East, Far
and Near, he spoke as his mother tongue. The

238 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

woman immediately displayed the utmost ser-
vility, ushering us into an ill-lighted passage,
with every evidence of profound respect. Fol-
lowing this passage, and passing an inner door,
from beyond whence proceeded bursts of discor-
dant music, we entered a little room bare of furni-
ture, with coarse matting for mural decorations,
and a patternless red carpet on the floor. In a
niche burned a common metal lamp.

The negress left us, and close upon her depar-
ture entered a very aged man with a long
patriarchal beard, who greeted my friend with
dignified courtesy. Following a brief conversa-
tion, the aged Arab — for such he appeared to
be — drew aside a strip of matting, revealing a
dark recess. Placing his finger upon his lips,
he silently invited us to enter.

We did so, and the mat was dropped behind us.
The sounds of crude music were now much
plainer, and as Smith slipped a little shutter
aside I gave a start of surprise.

Beyond lay a fairly large apartment, having
divans or low seats around three of its walls.
These divans were occupied by a motley company
of Turks, Egyptians, Greeks, and others; and I
noted two Chinese. Most of them smoked
cigarettes, and some were drinking. A girl was
performing a sinuous dance upon the square.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 239

carpet occupying the center of the floor, accom-
panied by a young negro woman upon a guitar
and by several members of the assembly who
clapped their hands to the music or hummed a
low, monotonous melody.

Shortly after our entrance into the passage
the dance terminated, and the dancer fled through
a curtained door at the farther end of the room.
A buzz of conversation arose.

" It is a sort of combined Welcaleh and place
of entertainment for a certain class of Oriental
residents in, or visiting, London," Smith whis-
pered. " The old gentleman who has just left
us is the proprietor or host. I have been here
before on several occasions, but have always
drawn blank."

He was peering out eagerly into the strange
clubroom.

" Whom do you expect to find here? " I asked.

" It is a recognized meeting-place," said Smith
in my ear. " It is almost a certainty that some
of the Fu-Manchu group use it at times."

Curiously I surveyed all these faces which
were visible from the spy-hole. My eyes rested
particularly upon the two Chinamen.

" Do you recognize anyone? " I whispered.

" S-sh ! "

Smith was craning his neck so as to command

240 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

a sight of the doorway. He obstructed my view?
and only by his tense attitude and some subtle
wave of excitement which he communicated to
me did I know that a new arrival was entering.

The hum of conversation died away, and in
the ensuing silence I heard the rustle of draper-
ies. The newcomer was a woman, then. Fear-
ful of making any noise I yet managed to get my
eyes to the level of the shutter.

A TVJman in an elegant, flame-colored opera
cloak was crossing the floor and coming in the
direction of the spot where we were concealed.
She wore a soft silk scarf about her head, a fold
partly draped across her face. A momentary
view I had of her — and wildly incongruous she
looked in that place — and she had disappeared
from sight, having approached someone invisible
who sat upon the divan immediately beneath our
point of vantage.

From the way in which the company gazed
towards her, I divined that she was no habitue
of the place, but that her presence there was as
greatly surprising to those in the room as it was
to me.

Whom could she be, this elegant lady who
visited such a haunt — who, it would seem, was
so anxious to disguise her identity, but who was
dressed for a society function rather than for a

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 241

midnight expedition of so unusual a character?

I began a whispered question, but Smith
tugged at my arm to silence me. His excite-
ment was intense. Had his keener powers en-
abled him to recognize the unknown?

A faint but most peculiar perfume stole to my
nostrils, a perfume which seemed to contain the
very soul of Eastern mystery. Only one woman
known to me used that perfume — Karamaneh.

Then it was she!

At last my friend's vigilance had been re-
warded. Eagerly I bent forward. Smith liter-
ally quivered in anticipation of a discovery.

Again the strange perfume was wafted to our
hiding-place; and, glancing neither to right nor
left, I saw Karamaneh — for that it was she I no
longer doubted — recross the room and disap-
pear.

" The man she spoke to," hissed Smith. " We
must see him ! We must have him ! "

He pulled the mat aside and stepped out into
the anteroom. It was empty. Down the pas-
sage he led, and we were almost come to the
door of the big room when it was thrown open
and a man came rapidly out, opened the street
door before Smith could reach him, and was
gone, slamming it fast.

I can swear that we were not four seconds be-

242 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

hind Mm, but when we gained the street it was
empty. Our quarry had disappeared as if by
magic. A big car was just turning the corner
towards Leicester Square.

" That is the girl," rapped Smith ; " but where
in Heaven's name is the man to whom she
brought the message? I would give a hundred
pounds to know what business is afoot. To
think that we have had such an opportunity and
have thrown it away ! "

Angry and nonplused he stood at the corner,
looking in the direction of the crowded thor-
oughfare into which the car had been driven, tug-
ging at the lobe of his ear, as was his habit in
such moments of perplexity, and sharply click-
ing his teeth together. I, too, was very thought-
ful. Clews were few enough in those days of our
war with that giant antagonist. The mere
thought that our trifling error of judgment to-
night in tarrying a moment too long might mean
the victory of Fu-Manchu, might mean the turn-
ing of the balance which a wise providence had
adjusted between the white and yellow races,
was appalling.

To Smith and me, who knew something of the
secret influences at work to overthrow the Indian
Empire, to place, it might be, the whole of
Europe and America beneath an Eastern rule,

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 243

it seemed that a great yellow hand was stretched
out over London. Doctor Fu-Manchu was a
menace to the civilized world. Yet his very ex-
istence remained unsuspected by the millions
whose fate he sought to command.

" Into what dark scheme have we had a
glimpse?" said Smith. "What State secret is
to be filched? What faithful servant of the
British Raj to be spirited away? Upon whom
now has Fu-Manchu set his death seal?"

" Karamaneh on this occasion may not have
been acting as an emissary of the Doctor's."

" I feel assured that she was, Petrie. Of the
many whom this yellow cloud may at any mo-
ment envelop, to which one did her message re-
fer? The man's instructions were urgent.
Witness his hasty departure. Curse it ! " He
dashed his right clenched fist into the palm of his
left hand. " I never had a glimpse of his face,
first to last. To think of the hours I have spent
in that place, in anticipation of just such a
meeting — only to bungle the opportunity when
it arose ! "

Scarce heeding what course we followed, we
had come now to Piccadilly Circus, and had
walked out into the heart of the night's traffic. I
just dragged Smith aside in time to save him
from the off-front wheel of a big Mercedes. Then

2M THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

the traffic was blocked, and we found ourselves
dangerously penned in amidst the press of
vehicles.

Somehow we extricated ourselves, jeered at by
taxi-drivers, who naturally took us for two
simple Oriental visitors, and just before that im-
passable barrier the arm of a London policeman
was lowered and the stream moved on, a
faint breath of perfume became perceptible to
me.

The cabs and cars about us were actually be-
ginning to move again, and there was nothing for
it but a hasty retreat to the curb. I could not
pause to glance behind, but instinctively I knew
that someone — someone who used that rare,
fragrant essence — was leaning from the win-
dow of the car.

a Andaman — second! " floated a soft whisper.

We gained the pavement as the pent-up traffic
roared upon its way.

Smith had not noticed the perfume worn by
the unseen occupant of the car, had not detected
the whispered words. But I had no reason to
doubt my senses, and I knew beyond question
that Fu-Manchu's lovely slave, Karamaneh, had
been within a yard of us, had recognized us,
and had uttered those words for our guidance.

On regaining my rooms, we devoted a whole

THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 245

hour to considering what " Andaman — second
could possibly mean.

" Hang it all ! " cried Smith, " it might mean
anything — the result of a race, for instance."

He burst into one of his rare laughs, and be-
gan to stuff broadcut mixture into his briar. I
could see that he had no intention of turning in.

" I can think of no one — no one of note —
in London at present upon whom it is likely that
Fu-Manchu would make an attempt," he said,
" except ourselves."

We began methodically to go through the long
list of names which we had compiled and to re-
view our elaborate notes. When, at last, I
turned in, the night had given place to a new
day. But sleep evaded me, and "Andaman —
second " danced like a mocking phantom through
my brain.

Then I heard the telephone bell. I heard
Smith speaking.

A minute afterwards he was in my room, his
face very grim.

" I knew as well as if I'd seen it with my own
eyes that some black business was afoot last
night," he said. " And it was. Within pistol-
shot of us! Someone has got at Frank Norris
West. Inspector Weymouth has just been on
the 'phone."

246 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" Norris West ! " I cried, " the American avia-
tor— and inventor — "

" Of the West aero-torpedo — yes. He's been
offering it to the English War Office, and they
have delayed too long."

I got out of bed.

" What do you mean ? "

" I mean that the potentialities have attracted
the attention of Dr. Fu-Manchu ! "

Those words operated electrically. I do not
know how long I was in dressing, how long a
time elapsed ere the cab for which Smith had
'phoned arrived, how many precious minutes
were lost upon the journey; but, in a nervous
whirl, these things slipped into the past, like the
telegraph poles seen from the window of an ex-
press, and, still in that tense state, we came
upon the scene of this newest outrage.

Mr. Norris West, whose lean, stoic face had lat-
terly figured so often in the daily press, lay upon
the floor in the little entrance hall of his cham-
bers, flat upon his back, with the telephone re-
ceiver in his hand.

The outer door had been forced by the police.
They had had to remove a piece of the paneling
to get at the bolt. A medical man was leaning
over the recumbent figure in the striped pajama

THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 247

suit, and Detective-Inspector Weymouth' stood
watching him as Smith and I entered.

" He has been heavily drugged/' said the Doc-
tor, sniffing at West's lips, "but I cannot say
what drug has been used. It isn't chloroform or
anything of that nature. He can safely be left
to sleep it off, I think."

I agreed, after a brief examination.
, "It's most extraordinary," said Weymouth.
" He rang up the Yard about an hour ago and
said his chambers had been invaded by China-
men. Then the man at the 'phone plainly heard
him fall. When we got here his front door was
bolted, as you've seen, and the windows are three
floors up. Nothing is disturbed."

" The plans of the aero-torpedo? " rapped
Smith.

" I take it they are in the safe in his bedroom,"
replied the detective, "and that is locked all
right. I think he must have taken an overdose
of something and had illusions. But in case
there was anything in what he mumbled (you
could hardly understand him) I thought it as
well to send for you."

" Quite right," said Smith rapidly. His eyes
shone like steel. "Lay him on the bed, In-
spector."

248 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

It was done, and my friend walked into the
bedroom.

Save that the bed was disordered, showing
that West had been sleeping in it, there were no
evidences of the extraordinary invasion mem
tioned by the drugged man. It was a small
room — the chambers were of that kind which
are let furnished — and very neat. A safe with
a combination lock stood in a corner. The win-
dow was open about a foot at the top.

Smith tried the safe and found it fast. He
stood for a moment clicking his teeth together,
by which I knew him to be perplexed. He
walked over to the window and threw it up. We
both looked out.

" You see," came Weymouth's voice, " it is
altogether too far from the court below for our
cunning Chinese friends to have fixed a ladder
with one of their bamboo rod arrangements.
And, even if they could get up there, it's too far
down from the roof — two more stories — for
them to have fixed it from there."

Smith nodded thoughtfully, at the same time
trying the strength of an iron bar which ran
from side to side of the window-sill. Suddenly
he stooped, with a sharp exclamation. Bending
over his shoulder I saw what it was that had at-
tracted his attention.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 249

Clearly imprinted upon the dust-coated gray
stone of the sill was a confused series of marks
— tracks — call them what you will.

Smith straightened himself and turned a
wondering look upon me.

"What is it, Petrie?" he said amazedly.
" Some kind of bird has been here, and recently."

Inspector Weymouth in turn examined the
marks.

" I never saw bird tracks like these, Mr.
Smith," he muttered.

Smith was tugging at the lobe of his ear.

" No," he returned reflectively ; " come to
think of it, neither did I."

He twisted around, looking at the man on the
bed.

" Do you think it was all an illusion? " asked
the detective.

" What about those marks on the window-
sill?" jerked Smith.

He began restlessly pacing about the room,
sometimes stopping before the locked safe and
frequently glancing at Norris West.

Suddenly he walked out and briefly examined
the other apartments, only to return again to
the bedroom.

" Petrie," he said, " we are losing valuable
time. West must be aroused."

250 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

Inspector Weymouth stared.

Smith turned to me impatiently. The doctor
summoned by the police had gone. " Is there
no means of arousing him, Petrie? " he said.

" Doubtless/' I replied, " he could be revived
if one but knew what drug he had taken."

My friend began his restless pacing again, and
suddenly pounced upon a little phial of tabloids
which had been hidden behind some books on a
shelf near the bed. He uttered a triumphant
exclamation.

" See what we have here, Petrie ! " he directed,
handing the phial to me. " It bears no label."

I crushed one of the tabloids in my palm and
applied my tongue to the powder.

" Some preparation of chloral hydrate," I pro-
nounced.

"A sleeping draught?" suggested Smith
eagerly.

"We might try," I said, and scribbled a for-
mula upon a leaf of my notebook. I asked Wey-
mouth to send the man who accompanied him
to call up the nearest chemist and procure the
antidote.

During the man's absence Smith stood contem-
plating the unconscious inventor, a peculiar ex-
pression upon his bronzed face.

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 251

" Andaman — second/' he muttered. " Shall
we find the key to the riddle here, I wonder? "

Inspector Weymouth, who had concluded, I
think, that the mysterious telephone call was
due to mental aberration on the part of Norris
West, was gnawing at his mustache impatiently
when his assistant returned. I administered the
powerful restorative, and although, as later
transpired, chloral was not responsible for West's
condition, the antidote operated successfully.

Norris West struggled into a sitting position,
and looked about him with haggard eyes.

" The Chinamen ! The Chinamen ! " he mut-
tered.

He sprang to his feet, glaring wildly at Smith
and me, reeled, and almost fell.

" It is all right," I said, supporting him.
" I'm a doctor. You have been unwell."

"Have the police come?" he burst out.
" The safe — try the safe ! "

" It's all right," said Inspector Weymouth.
" The safe is locked — unless someone else knows
the combination, there's nothing to worry
about."

" No one else knows it," said West, and
staggered unsteadily to the safe. Clearly his
mind was in a dazed condition, but, setting his

252 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

jaw with a curious expression of grim determi-
nation, he collected his thoughts and opened the
safe.

He bent down, looking in.

In some way the knowledge came to me that
the curtain was about to rise on a new and sur-
prising act in the Fu-Manchu drama.

" God ! " he whispered — we could scarcely
hear him — " the plans are gone ! "

Chapter XIX

I HAVE never seen a man quite so surprised
as Inspector Weymouth.

" This is absolutely incredible ! " he said.
" There's only one door to your chambers. We
found it bolted from the inside.''

" Yes," groaned West, pressing his hand to
his forehead. " I bolted it myself at eleven
o'clock, when I came in."

" No human being could climb up or down to
your windows. The plans of the aero-torpedo
were inside a safe."

" I put them there myself," said West, " on
returning from the War Office, and I had occa-
sion to consult them after I had come in and
bolted the door. I returned them to the safe
and locked it. That it was still locked you saw
for yourselves, and no one else in the world
knows the combination."

" But the plans have gone," said Weymouth.
"It's magic! How was it done? What
happened last night, sir? What did you mean
when you rang us up?"

Smith during this colloquy was pacing rapidly

253

254 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

up and down the room. He turned abruptly to
the aviator.

" Every fact you can remember, Mr. West,
please," he said tersely; " and be as brief as you
possibly can." ,

" I came in, as I said," explained West,
" about eleven o'clock, and, having made some
notes relating to an interview arranged for this
morning, I locked the plans in the safe and
turned in."

" There was no one hidden anywhere in your
chambers?" snapped Smith.

u There was not," replied West. " I looked.
I invariably do. Almost immediately, I went
to sleep."

" How many chloral tabloids did you take? "
I interrupted.

Norris West turned to me with a slow smile.

" You're cute, Doctor," he said. " I took two.
It's a bad habit, but I can't sleep without. They
are specially made up for me by a firm in Phila-
delphia.

" How long sleep lasted, when it became filled
with uncanny dreams, and when those dreams
merged into reality, I do not know — shall
never know, I suppose. But out of the dream-
less void a face came to me — closer — closer —
and peered into mine.

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 255

" I was in that curious condition wherein one
knows that one is dreaming and seeks to awaken
■ — to escape. But a nightmare-like oppression
held me. So I must lie and gaze into the seared
yellow face that hung over me, for it would drop
so close that I could trace the cicatrized scar
running from the left ear to the corner of the
mouth, and drawing up the lip like the lip of a
snarling cur. I could look into the malignant,
jaundiced eyes; I could hear the dim whispering
of the distorted mouth — whispering that seemed
to counsel something — something evil. That
whispering intimacy was indescribably repul-
sive. Then the wicked yellow face would be
withdrawn, and would recede until it became
as a pin's head in the darkness far above me —
almost like a glutinous, liquid thing.

" Somehow I got upon my feet, or dreamed I
did — God knows where dreaming ended and
reality began. Gentlemen, maybe you'll con-
clude I went mad last night, but as I stood hold-
ing on to the bedrail I heard the blood throbbing
through my arteries with a noise like a screw-
propeller. I started laughing. The laughter
issued from my lips with a shrill whistling sound
that pierced me with physical pain and seemed
to wake the echoes of the whole block. I thought
myself I was going mad, and I tried to command

256 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

my will — to break the power of the chloral —
for I concluded that I had accidentally taken an
overdose.

u Then the walls of my bedroom started to re-
cede, till at last I stood holding on to a bed
which had shrunk to the size of a doll's cot, in
the middle of a room like Trafalgar Square!
That window yonder was such a long way off I
could scarcely see it, but I could just detect a
Chinaman — the owner of the evil yellow face
— creeping through it. He was followed by an-
other, who was enormously tall — so tall that,
as they came towards me (and it seemed to take
them something like half-an-hour to cross this
incredible apartment in my dream), the second
Chinaman seemed to tower over me like a cy-
press-tree.

" I looked up to his face — his wicked, hair-
less face. Mr. Smith, whatever age I live to,
I'll never forget that face I saw last night — or
did I see it? God knows! The pointed chin,
the great dome of a forehead, and the eyes —
heavens above, the huge green eyes ! "

He shook like a sick man, and I glanced at
Smith significantly. Inspector Weymouth was
stroking his mustache, and his mingled expres-
sion of incredulity and curiosity was singular to
behold.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 257

" The pumping of my blood," continued West,
" seemed to be bursting my body ; the room kept
expanding and contracting. One time the ceil-
ing would be pressing down on my head, and the
Chinamen — sometimes I thought there were two
of them, sometimes twenty — became dwarfs;
the next instant it shot up like the roof of a
cathedral.

" ' Can I be awake/ I whispered, ' or am I
dreaming? '

" My whisper went sweeping in windy echoes
about the walls, and was lost in the shadowy
distances up under the invisible roof.

" i You are dreaming — yes.' It was the
Chinaman with the green eyes who was address-
ing me, and the words that he uttered appeared
to occupy an immeasurable time in the utterance.
4 But at will I can render the subjective objec-
tive.' I don't think I can have dreamed those
singular words, gentlemen.

" And then he fixed the green eyes upon me —
the blazing green eyes. I made no attempt to
move. They seemed to be draining me of some-
thing vital — bleeding me of every drop of men-
tal power. The whole nightmare room grew
green, and I felt that I was being absorbed into
its greenness.

" I can see what you think. And even in my;,

258 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

delirium — if it was delirium — I thought the
same. Now comes the climax of my experience
— my vision — I don't know what to call it.
I saw some words issuing from my own mouth ! "

Inspector Weymouth coughed discreetly.
Smith whisked round upon him.

" This will be outside your experience, Inspec-
tor, I know,/' he said, " but Mr. Norris West's
statement does not surprise me in the least. I
know to what the experience was due."

Weymouth stared incredulously, but a dawn-
ing perception of the truth was come to me, too.

" How I saw a sound I just won't attempt to
explain; I simply tell you I saw it. Some-
how I knew I had betrayed myself — given some-
thing away."

" You gave away the secret of the lock combi-
nation ! " rapped Smith.

u gk t » grunted Weymouth.

But West went on hoarsely:

"Just before the blank came a name flashed
before my eyes. It was * Bayard Taylor.' "

At that I interrupted West.

" I understand ! " I cried. " I understand !
Another name has just occurred to me, Mr. West
i — that of the Frenchman, Moreau."

" You have solved the mystery," said Smith.
*' It was natural Mr. West should have thought

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 259

of the American traveler, Bayard Taylor,
though. Moreau's book is purely scientific. He
has probably never read it."

" I fought with the stupor that was over-
coming me/' continued West, " striving to asso-
ciate that vaguely familiar name with the fan-
tastic things through which I moved. It seemed
to me that the room was empty again. I made
for the hall, for the telephone. I could scarcely
drag my feet along. It seemed to take me half-
an-hour to get there. I remember calling up
Scotland Yard, and I remember no more."

There was a short, tense interval.

In some respects I was nonplused; but,
frankly, I think Inspector Weymouth considered
West insane. Smith, his hands locked behind
his back, stared out of the window.

"Andaman — second" he said suddenly.
"Weymouth, when is the first train to Til-
bury?"

" Five twenty-two from Fenchurch Street,"
replied the Scotland Yard man promptly.

" Too late ! " rapped my friend. " Jump in
a taxi and pick up two good men to leave for
China at once! Then go and charter a special
to Tilbury to leave in twenty-five minutes.
Order another cab to wait outside for me."

Weymouth was palpably amazed, but Smith's

260 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

tone was imperative. The Inspector departed
hastily.

I stared at Smith, not comprehending what
prompted this singular course.

" Now that you can think clearly, Mr. West,"
he said, " of what does your experience remind
you? The errors of perception regarding time;
the idea of seeing a sound; the illusion that the
room alternately increased and diminished in
size; your fit of laughter, and the recollection of
the name Bayard Taylor. Since evidently you
are familiar with that author's work — ' The
Land of the Saracen/ is it not? — these symp-
toms of the attack should be familiar, I think."

Norris West pressed his hands to his evidently
aching head.

" Bayard Taylor's book," he said dully. " Yes !
... I know of what my brain sought to remind
me — Taylor's account of his experience under
hashish. Mr. Smith, someone doped me with
hashish ! "

Smith nodded grimly.

" Cannabis indica" I said — " Indian hemp.
That is what you were drugged with. I have no
doubt that now you experience a feeling of nau-
sea and intense thirst, with aching in the muscles,
particularly the deltoid. I think you must have
taken at least fifteen grains."

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 261

Smith stopped his perambulations immediately
in front of West, looking into his dulled eyes.

" Someone visited your chambers last night,"
he said slowly, " and for your chloral tabloids
substituted some containing hashish, or perhaps
not pure hashish. Fu-Manchu is a profound
chemist."

Norris West started.

" Someone substituted — " he began.

" Exactly," said Smith, looking at him keenly ;
" someone who was here yesterday. Have you
any idea whom it could have been? "

West hesitated. " I had a visitor in the
afternoon," he said, seemingly speaking the
words unwillingly, " but — *

"A lady?" jerked Smith. "I suggest that it
was a lady."

West nodded.

" You're quite right," he admitted. " I don't
know how you arrived at the conclusion, but a
lady whose acquaintance I made recently — a
foreign lady."

" Karamaneh ! " snapped Smith.

" I don't know what you mean in the least,
but she came here — knowing this to be my
present address — to ask me to protect her from
a mysterious man who had followed her right
from Charing Cross. She said he was down ill

262 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

the lobby, and naturally, I asked her to wait
here whilst I went and sent him about his busi-
ness."

He laughed shortly.

" I am over-old," he said, " to be guyed by a
woman. You spoke just now of someone called
Fu-Manchu. Is that the crook I'm indebted to
for the loss of my plans? I've had attempts
made by agents of two European governments,
but a Chinaman is a novelty."

" This Chinaman," Smith assured him, " is the
greatest novelty of his age. You recognize your
symptoms now from Bayard Taylor's account?"

" Mr. West's statement," I said, " ran closely
parallel with portions of Moreau's book on
* Hashish Hallucinations.' Only Fu-Manchu, I
think, would have thought of employing Indian
hemp. I doubt, though, if it was pure Cannabis
indica. At any rate, it acted as an opiate — "

"And drugged Mr. West," interrupted Smith,
"sufficiently to enable Fu-Manchu to enter un-
observed."

" Whilst it produced symptoms which" rendered
him an easy subject for the Doctor's influence.
It is difficult in this case to separate hallucina-
tion from reality, but I think, Mr. West, that
Fu-Manchu must have exercised an hypnotic in-
fluence upon your drugged brain. We have evi

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 263

dence that he dragged from you the secret of the
combination."

" God knows we have ! " said West. " But
who is this Fu-Manchu, and how — how in the
name of wonder did he get into my chambers? "

Smith pulled out his watch. " That," he
said rapidly, " I cannot delay to explain if I'm
to intercept the man who has the plans. Come
along, Petrie; we must be at Tilbury within the
hour. There is just a bare chance."

Chapter XX

IT was with my mind in a condition of unique
perplexity that I hurried with Nayland
Smith into the cab which waited and
dashed off through the streets in which the busy
life of London just stirred into being. I sup-
pose I need not say that I could penetrate no
farther into this, Fu-Manchu's latest plot, than
the drugging of Norris West with hashish? Of
his having been so drugged with Indian hemp
— that is, converted temporarily into a maniac —
would have been evident to any medical man who
had heard his statement and noted the distress-
ing after-effects which conclusively pointed to
Indian hemp poisoning. Knowing something of
the Chinese doctor's powers, I could understand
that he might have extracted from West the se-
cret of the combination by sheer force of will
whilst the American was under the influence of
the drug. But I could not understand how Fu-
Manchu had gained access to locked chambers on
the third story of a building.

"Smith," I said, "those bird tracks on the

264

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 265

window-sill — they furnish the key to a mys-
tery which is puzzling me."

" They do," said Smith, glancing impatiently
at his watch. " Consult your memories of Dr.
Fu-Manchu's habits — especially your memories
of his pets."

I reviewed in my mind the creatures grue-
some and terrible which surrounded the China-
man — the scorpions, the bacteria, the noxious
things which were the weapons wherewith he
visited death upon whomsoever opposed the es-
tablishment of a potential Yellow Empire. But
no one of them could account for the imprints
upon the dust of West's window-sill.

" You puzzle me, Smith," I confessed. " There
is much in this extraordinary case that puzzles
me. I can think of nothing to account for the
marks."

"Have you thought of Fu-Manchu's marmo-
set?" asked Smith.

"The monkey!" I cried.

"They were the footprints of a small ape,"
my friend continued. " For a moment I was de-
ceived as you were, and believed them to be the
tracks of a large bird ; but I have seen the foot-
prints of apes before now, and a marmoset,
though an American variety, I believe, is not un-
like some of the apes of Burma."

266 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

" I am still in the dark," I said.

"It is pure hypothesis," continued Smith,
"but here is the theory — in lieu of a better
one it covers the facts. The marmoset — and it
is contrary from the character of Pu-Manchu to
keep any creature for mere amusement — is
trained to perform certain duties.

" You observed the waterspout running up be-
side the window; you observed the iron bar in-
tended to prevent a window-cleaner from falling
out? For an ape the climb from the court be-
low to the sill above was a simple one. He
carried a cord, probably attached to his body.
He climbed on to the sill, over the bar, and
climbed down again. By means of this cord a
rope was pulled up over the bar, by means of the
rope one of those ladders of silk and bamboo.
One of the Doctor's servants ascended — prob-
ably to ascertain if the hashish had acted suc-
cessfully. That was the yellow dream-face
which West saw bending over him. Then
followed the Doctor, and to his giant will the
drugged brain of West was a pliant instrument
which he bent to his own ends. The court would
be deserted at that hour of the night, and, in
any event, directly after the ascent the ladder
probably was pulled up, only to be lowered again
when West had revealed the secret of his own

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 26T

safe and Fu-Manchu had secured the plans.
The reclosing of the safe and the removing of
the hashish tabloids, leaving no clew beyond the
delirious ravings of a drug slave — for so any-
one unacquainted with the East must have con-
strued West's story — is particularly character-
istic. His own tabloids were returned, of
course. The sparing of his life alone is a re-
finement of art which points to a past master."

" Karamaneh was the decoy again?" I said
shortly.

" Certainly. Hers was the task to ascertain
West's habits and to substitute the tabloids.
She it was who waited in the luxurious car —
infinitely less likely to attract attention at that
hour in that place than a modest taxi — and
received the stolen plans. She did her work
well.

" Poor Karamaneh ; she had no alternative !
I said I would have given a hundred pounds for
a sight of the messenger's face — the man to
whom she handed them. I would give a thou-
sand now ! "

" Andaman — second" I said. " What did
she mean? "

"Then it has not dawned upon you?" cried
Smith excitedly, as the cab turned into the sta-
tion. " The Andaman, of the Oriental Naviga-

268 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

tion Company's line, leaves Tilbury with the
next tide for China ports. Our man is a second-
class passenger. I am wiring to delay her de-
parture, and the special should get us to the
docks inside of forty minutes."

Very vividly I can reconstruct in my mind
that dash to the docks through the early au-
tumn morning. My friend being invested with
extraordinary powers from the highest author-
ities, by Inspector Weymouth's instructions the
line had been cleared all the way.

Something of the tremendous importance of
Nayland Smith's mission came home to me as
we hurried on to the platform, escorted by the
station-master, and the five of us — for Wey-
mouth had two other C.I.D. men with him — -
took our seats in the special.

Off we went on top speed, roaring through"
stations, where a glimpse might be had of
wondering officials upon the platforms, for a
special train was a novelty on the line. All
ordinary traffic arrangements were held up until
we had passed through, and we reached Til-
bury in time which I doubt not constituted a
record.

There at the docks was the great liner, de-
layed in her passage to the Far East by the will

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 269

of my royally empowered companion. It was
novel, and infinitely exciting.

" Mr. Commissioner Nay land Smith? " said
the captain interrogatively, when we were shown
into his room, and looked from one to another
and back to the telegraph form which he held in
his hand.

" The same, Captain/' said my friend briskly.
" I shall not detain you a moment. I am in-
structing the authorities at all ports east of
Suez to apprehend one of your second-class
passengers, should he leave the ship. He is in
possession of plans which practically belong to
the British Government? "

"Why not arrest him now?" asked the sea-
man bluntly.

" Because I don't know him. All second-class
passengers' baggage will be searched as they
land. I am hoping something from that, if all
else fails. But I want you privately to instruct
your stewards to watch any passenger of Orien-
tal nationality, and to cooperate with the two
Scotland Yard men who are joining you for the
voyage. I look to you to recover these plans,
Captain."

" I will do my best," the captain assured him.

Then, from amid the heterogeneous group on
the dockside, we were watching the liner de-

270 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

part, and Nayland Smith's expression was a
very singular one. Inspector Weymouth stood
with us, a badly puzzled man. Then occurred
the extraordinary incident which to this day re-
mains inexplicable, for, clearly heard by all
three of us, a guttural voice said :

"Another victory for China, Mr. Nayland
Smith!"

I turned as though I had been stung. Smith
turned also. My eyes passed from face to face of
the group about us. None was familiar. No
one apparently had moved away.

But the voice was the voice of Doctor Fu-
Manchu.

As I write of it, now, I can appreciate the
difference between that happening, as it ap-
pealed to us, and as it must appeal to you who
merely read of it. It is beyond my powers to
convey the sense of the uncanny which the epi-
sode created. Yet, even as I think of it, I feel
again, though in lesser degree, the chill which
seemed to creep through my veins that day.

From my brief history of the wonderful and
evil man who once walked, by the way unsus-
pected, in the midst of the people of England —
near whom you, personally, may at some time
unwittingly have been — I am aware that much
must be omitted. I have no space for lengthy

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 271

examinations of the many points but ill illumi-
nated with which it is dotted. This incident at
the docks is but one such point.

Another is the singular vision which appeared
to me whilst I lay in the cellar of the house near
Windsor. It has since struck me that it
possessed peculiarities akin to those of a hashish
hallucination. Can it be that we were drugged
on that occasion with Indian hemp? Can-
nabis indica is a treacherous narcotic, as every
medical man knows full well; but Fu-Manchu's
knowledge of the drug was far in advance of
our slow science. West's experience proved so
much.

I may have neglected opportunities — later,
you shall judge if I did so — opportunities to
glean for the West some of the strange knowl-
edge of the secret East. Perhaps, at a fu-
ture time, I may rectify my errors. Perhaps
that wisdom — the wisdom stored up by Fu-
Manchu — is lost forever. There is, however,
at least a bare possibility of its survival, in
part; and I do not wholly despair of one day
publishing a scientific sequel to this record of
our dealings with the Chinese doctor.

Chapter XXI

TIME wore on and seemingly brought us no
nearer, or very little nearer, to our goal.
So carefully had my friend Nayland
Smith excluded the matter from the press that,
whilst public interest was much engaged with
some of the events in the skein of mystery which
he had come from Burma to unravel, outside the
Secret Service and the special department of
Scotland Yard few people recognized that the
several murders, robberies and disappearances
formed each a link in a chain; fewer still were
aware that a baneful presence was in our midst,
that a past master of the evil arts lay concealed
somewhere in the metropolis; searched for by
the keenest wits which the authorities could di-
rect to the task, but eluding all — triumphant,
contemptuous.

One link in that chain Smith himself for long
failed to recognize. Yet it was a big and im-
portant link.

" Petrie," he said to me one morning, " listen
to this:

272

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 273

" '. . . In sight of Shanghai — a clear, dark
night. On board the deck of a junk passing close
to seaward of the Andaman a blue flare started
up. A minute later there was a cry of " Man
overboard ! "

" ' Mr. Lewin, the chief officer, who was in
charge, stopped the engines. A boat was put
out. But no one was recovered. There are
sharks in these waters. A fairly heavy sea was
running.

" ' Inquiry showed the missing man to be a
James Edwards, second class, booked to Shang-
hai. I think the name was assumed. The man
was some sort of Oriental, and we had had him
under close observation. . . .' "

" That's the end of their report," exclaimed
Smith.

He referred to the two C.I.D. men who had
joined the Andaman at the moment of her de-
parture from Tilbury.

He carefully lighted his pipe.

"Is it a victory for China, Petrie?" he said
softly.

" Until the great war reveals her secret re-
sources — and I pray that the day be not in my
time — we shall never know," I replied.

Smith began striding up and down the room.

274 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" Whose name," he jerked abruptly, " stands
now at the head of our danger list? "

He referred to a list which we had compiled
of the notable men intervening between the evil
genius who secretly had invaded London and
the triumph of his cause — the triumph of the
yellow races.

I glanced at our notes.

" Lord Southery," I replied.

Smith tossed the morning paper across to me.

" Look," he said shortly. " He's dead."

I read the account of the peer's death, and
glanced at the long obituary notice ; but no more
than glanced at it. He had but recently re-
turned from the East, and now, after a short
illness, had died from some affection of the
heart. There had been no intimation that his
illness was of a serious nature, and even Smith,
who watched over his flock — the flock threat-
ened by the wolf, Fu-Manchu — with jealous
zeal, had not suspected that the end was so near.

" Do you think he died a natural death,
Smith?" I asked.

My friend reached across the table and rested
the tip of a long finger upon one of the sub-head-
ings to the account:

?f Sir Frank Narcombe Summoned Too Late.*

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 275

" You see," said Smith, " Southery died during
the night, but Sir Frank Narcombe, arriving
a few minutes later, unhesitatingly pronounced
death to be due to syncope, and seems to have
noticed nothing suspicious."

I looked at him thoughtfully.

" Sir Frank is a great physician," I said
slowly ; " but we must remember he would be
looking for nothing suspicious."

" We must remember," rapped Smith, " that,
if Dr. Fu-Manchu is responsible for Southery's
death, except to the eye of an expert there would
be nothing suspicious to see. Fu-Manchu leaves
no clews."

"Are you going around?" I asked.

Smith shrugged his shoulders.

" I think not," he replied. " Either a greater
One than Fu-Manchu has taken Lord Southery,
or the yellow doctor has done his work so well
that no trace remains of his presence in the
matter."

Leaving his breakfast untasted, he wandered
aimlessly about the room, littering the hearth
with matches as he constantly relighted his pipe^
which went out every few minutes.

" It's no good, Petrie," he burst out suddenly ;
" it cannot be a coincidence. We must go around
and see him."

276 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

An hour later we stood in the silent room, with
its drawn blinds and its deathful atmosphere,
looking down at the pale, intellectual face of
Henry Stradwick, Lord Southery, the greatest
engineer of his day. The mind that lay behind
that splendid brow had planned the construc-
tion of the railway for which Russia had paid
so great a price, had conceived the scheme for
the canal which, in the near future, was to bring
two great continents, a full week's journey nearer
one to the other. But now it would plan no
more.

" He had latterly developed symptoms of
angina pectoris" explained the family physician ;
"but I had not anticipated a fatal termination
so soon. I was called about two o'clock this
morning, and found Lord Southery in a danger-
ously exhausted condition. I did all that was
possible, and Sir Frank Narcombe was sent for.
But shortly before his arrival the patient ex-
pired."

" I understand, Doctor, that you had been
treating Lord Southery for angina pectoris?"
I said.

" Yes," was the reply, " for some months."

" You regard the circumstances of his end as
entirely consistent with a death from that
cause? "

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 277

" Certainly. Do you observe anything un-
usual yourself? Sir Frank Narcombe quite
agrees with. me. There is surely no room for
doubt? "

" No," said Smith, tugging reflectively at the
lobe of his left ear. " We do not question the
accuracy of your diagnosis in any way, sir."

The physician seemed puzzled.

" But am I not right in supposing that you
are connected with the police?" asked the
physician.

" Neither Dr. Petrie nor myself are in any way
connected with the police," answered Smith.
" But, nevertheless, I look to you to regard our
recent questions as confidential."

As we were leaving the house, hushed awe-
somely in deference to the unseen visitor who
had touched Lord Southery with gray, cold
fingers, Smith paused, detaining a black-coated
man who passed us on the stairs.

"You were Lord Southery's valet?"

The man bowed.

" Were you in the room at the moment of his
fatal seizure? "

" I was, sir."

" Did you see or hear anything unusual — any-
thing unaccountable? "

" Nothing, sir."

278 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" No strange sounds outside the house, for
instance? "

The man shook his head, and Smith, taking
my arm, passed out into the street.

" Perhaps this business is making me im?
aginative," he said ; " but there seems to be some-
thing tainting the air in yonder — something
peculiar to houses whose doors bear the invisible
death-mark of Fu-Manchu."

" You are right, Smith ! " I cried. " I hesi-
tated to mention the matter, but I, too, have de^
veloped some other sense which warns me of the
Doctor's presence. Although there is not a
scrap of confirmatory evidence, I am as sure that
he has brought about Lord Southery's death as
if I had seen him strike the blow."

It was in that torturing frame of mind — •
chained, helpless, in our ignorance, or by reason
of the Chinaman's supernormal genius — that
we lived throughout the ensuing days. My
friend began to look like a man consumed by a
burning fever. Yet, we could not act.

In the growing dark of an evening shortly fol-
lowing I stood idly turning over some of the
works exposed for sale outside a second-hand
bookseller's in New Oxford Street. One dealing
with the secret societies of China struck me as
being likely to prove instructive, and I was about

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 279

to call the shopman when I was startled to feel
a hand clutch my arm.

I turned around rapidly — and was looking
into the darkly beautiful eyes of Karamaneh!
She — whom I had seen in so many guises —
was dressed in a perfectly fitting walking habit,
and had much of her wonderful hair concealed
beneath a fashionable hat.

She glanced about her apprehensively.

" Quick ! Come round the corner. I must
speak to you/' she said, her musical voice thril-
ling with excitement.

I never was quite master of myself in her
presence. He must have been a man of ice who
could have been, I think, for her beauty had all
the bouquet of rarity ; she was a mystery — and
mystery adds charm to a woman. Probably she
should have been under arrest, but I know I
would have risked much to save her from it.

As we turned into a quiet thoroughfare she
stopped and said:

" I am in distress. You have often asked me
to enable you to capture Dr. Fu-Manchu. I am
prepared to do so."

I could scarcely believe that I heard aright.

" Your brother — " I began.

She seized my arm entreatingly, looking into
my eyes.

280 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" You are a doctor," she said. " I want you
to come and see him now."

" What ! Is he in London? "

" He is at the house of Dr. Fu-Manchu."

"And you would have me — "

"Accompany me there, yes."

Nayland Smith, I doubted not, would have
counseled me against trusting my life in the
hands of this girl with the pleading eyes. Yet
I did so, and with little hesitation; shortly we
were traveling eastward in a closed cab. Kara*
maneh was very silent, but always when I turned
to her I found her big eyes fixed upon me with
an expression in which there was pleading, in
which there was sorrow, in which there was
something else — something indefinable, yet
strangely disturbing. The cabman she had di-
rected to drive to the lower end of the Com-
mercial Road, the neighborhood of the new docks,
and the scene of one of our early adventures
with Dr. Fu-Manchu. The mantle of dusk had
closed about the squalid activity of the East End
streets as we neared our destination. Aliens of
every shade of color were about us now, emerging
from burrow-like alleys into the glare of the
lamps upon the main road. In the short space
of the drive we had passed from the bright world

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 281

of the West into the dubious underworld of the
East.

I do not know that Karamaneh moved ; but in
sympathy, as we neared the abode of the sinister
Chinaman, she crept nearer to me, and when the
cab was discharged, and together we walked
down a narrow turning leading riverward, she
clung to me fearfully, hesitated, and even seemed
upon the point of turning back. But, overcom-
ing her fear or repugnance, she led on, through
a maze of alleyways and courts, wherein I hope-
lessly lost my bearings, so that it came home to
me how wholly I was in the hands of this girl
whose history was so full of shadows, whose real
character was so inscrutable, whose beauty,
whose charm truly might mask the cunning of
a serpent.

I spoke to her.

" S-sh! " She laid her hand upon my arm,
enjoining me to silence.

The high, drab brick wall of what looked like
some part of a dock building loomed above us
in the darkness, and the indescribable stenches
of the lower Thames were borne to my nostrils
through a gloomy, tunnel-like opening, beyond
which whispered the river. The muffled clangor
of waterside activity was about us. I heard a

282 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

key grate in a lock, and Karamaneh drew me
into the shadow of an open door, entered, and
closed it behind her.

For the first time I perceived, in contrast to the
odors of the court without, the fragrance of the
peculiar perfume which now I had come to as-
sociate with her. Absolute darkness was about
us, and by this perfume alone I knew that she
was near to me, until her hand touched mine,
and I was led along an uncarpeted passage and
up an uncarpeted stair. A second door was um
locked, and I found myself in an exquisitely fur-
nished room, illuminated by the soft light of a
shaded lamp which stood upon a low, inlaid
table amidst a perfect ocean of silken cushions,
etrewn upon a Persian carpet, whose yellow rich-
ness was lost in the shadows beyond the circle
of light.

Karamaneh raised a curtain draped before a
doorway, and stood listening intently for a
moment.

The silence was unbroken.

Then something stirred amid the wilderness
of cushions, and two tiny bright eyes looked up
at me. Peering closely, I succeeded in distin-
guishing, crouched in that soft luxuriance, a lit-
tle ape. It was Dr. Fu-Manchu's marmoset.

" This way," whispered Karamaneh.

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 283

Never, I thought, was a staid medical man
committed to a more unwise enterprise, but so
far I had gone, and no consideration of prudence
could now be of avail.

The corridor beyond wTas thickly carpeted.
Following the direction of a faint light which
gleamed ahead, it proved to extend as a balcony
across one end of a spacious apartment. To-
gether we stood high up there in the shadows,
and looked down upon such a scene as I never
could have imagined to exist within many a mile
of that district.

The place below was even more richly ap-
pointed than the room into which first we had
come. Here, as there, piles of cushions formed
splashes of gaudy color about the floor. Three
lamps hung by chains from the ceiling, their
light softened by rich silk shades. One wall was
almost entirely occupied by glass cases contain-
ing chemical apparatus, tubes, retorts and other
less orthodox indications of Dr. Fu-Manchu's pur-
suits, whilst close against another lay the most
extraordinary object of a sufficiently extraordi-
nary room — a low couch, upon which was ex-
tended the motionless form of a boy. In the
light of a lamp which hung directly above him,
his olive face showed an almost startling re-
semblance to that of Karamaneh — save that the

284 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

girl's coloring was more delicate. He had black,
curly hair, which stood out prominently against
the white covering upon which he lay, his hands
crossed upon his breast.

Transfixed with astonishment, I stood looking
down upon him. The wonders of the " Arabian
Mghts " were wonders no longer, for here, in
East-End London, was a true magician's palace,
lacking not its beautiful slave, lacking not its
enchanted prince!

" It is Aziz, my brother," said Karamaneh.

We passed down a stairway on to the floor
of the apartment. Karamaneh knelt and bent
over the boy, stroking his hair and whispering
to him lovingly. I, too, bent over him; and I
shall never forget the anxiety in the girl's eyes
as she watched me eagerly whilst I made a brief
examination.

Brief, indeed, for even ere I had touched him
I knew that the comely shell held no spark of
life. But Karamaneh fondled the cold hands,
and spoke softly in that Arabic tongue which
long before I had divined must be her native
language.

Then, as I remained silent, she turned and
looked at me, read the truth in my eyes, and
rose from her knees, stood rigidly upright,
and clutched me tremblingly.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 285

" He is not dead — he is not dead ! " she whis-
pered, and shook me as a child might, seeking
to arouse me to a proper understanding. " Oh,
tell me he is not — "

" I cannot/' I replied gently, " for indeed he
is."

" No ! " she said, wild-eyed, and raising her
hands to her face as though half distraught.
" You do not understand — yet you are a doc-
tor. You do not understand — "

She stopped, moaning to herself and looking
from the handsome face of the boy to me. It
was pitiful; it was uncanny. But sorrow for
the girl predominated in my mind.

Then from somewhere I heard a sound which
I had heard before in houses occupied by Dr.
Fu-Manchu — that of a muffled gong.

" Quick ! " Karamaneh had me by the arm.
" Up ! He has returned ! "

She fled up the stairs to the balcony, I close
at her heels. The shadows veiled us, the thick
carpet deadened the sound of our tread, or cer-
tainly wTe must have been detected by the man
who entered the room we had just quitted.

It was Dr. Fu-Manchu!

Yellow-robed, immobile, the inhuman green
eyes glittering catlike even, it seemed, before the
light struck them, he threaded his way through

286 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

the archipelago of cushions and bent over the
couch of Aziz.

Karamaneh dragged me down on to my knees.

" Watch ! " she whispered. " Watch ! "

Dr. Fu-Manchu felt for the pulse of the boy
whom a moment since I had pronounced dead,
and, stepping to the tall glass case, took out a
long-necked flask of chased gold, and from it,
into a graduated glass, he poured some drops of
an amber liquid wholly unfamiliar to me. I
watched him with all my eyes, and noted how
high the liquid rose in the measure. He charged
a needle-syringe, and, bending again over Aziz,
made an injection.

Then all the wonders I had heard of this man
became possible, and with an awe which any
other physician who had examined Aziz must
have felt, I admitted him a miracle-worker.
For as I watched, all but breathless, the dead
came to life! The glow of health crept upon
the olive cheek — the boy moved — he raised his
hands above his head — he sat up, supported by
the Chinese doctor!

Fu-Manchu touched some hidden bell. A hide-
ous yellow man with a scarred face entered,
carrying a tray upon which were a bowl contain-
ing some steaming fluid, apparently soup, what
looked like oaten cakes, and a flask of red wine*

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 28T

As the boy, exhibiting no more unusual symp-
toms than if he had just awakened from a normal
sleep, commenced his repast, Karamaneh drew
me gently along the passage into the room which
we had first entered. My heart leaped wildly as
the marmoset bounded past us to drop hand
over hand to the lower apartment in search of
its master.

" You see," said Karamaneh, her voice quiver-
ing, " he is not dead ! But without Fu-Manchu
he is dead to me. How can I leave him when
he holds the life of Aziz in his hand? "

" You must get me that flask, or some of its
contents," I directed. " But tell me, how does
he produce the appearance of death? "

" I cannot tell you," she replied. " I do not
know. It is something in the wine. In another
hour Aziz will be again as you saw him. But
see." And, opening a little ebony box, she
produced a phial half filled with the amber
liquid.

" Good ! " I said, and slipped it into my pocket.
" When will be the best time to seize Fu-Manchu
and to restore your brother? "

" I will let you know," she whispered, and,
opening the door, pushed me hurriedly from the
room. " He is going away to-night to the north ;
but you must not come to-night. Quick!

288 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

Quick ! Along the passage. He may call me a|
any moment."

So, with the phial in my pocket containing a,
potent preparation unknown to Western science,
and with a last long look into the eyes of Kara*
maneh, I passed out into the narrow alley, out
from the fragrant perfumes of that mystery
house into the place of Thames-side stenches.

Chapter XXII

46^L^K T^ must arrange for the house to be
raided without delay/ ' said Smith.
" This time we are sure of our
ally—"

" But we must keep our promise to her," I
interrupted.

" You can look after that, Petrie," my friend
said. " I will devote the whole of my attention
to Dr. Fu-Manchu ! " he added grimly.

Up and down the room he paced, gripping the
blackened briar between his teeth, so that the
muscles stood out squarely upon his lean jaws.
The bronze which spoke of the Burmese sun en-
hanced the brightness of his gray eyes.

"What have I all along maintained?" he
jerked, looking back at me across his shoulder
— " that, although Karamaneh was one of the
strongest weapons in the Doctor's armory, she
was one which some day would be turned against
him. That day has dawned."

"We must await word from her."

" Quite so."

289

290 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

He knocked out his pipe on the grate. Then :

" Have you any idea of the nature of the fluid
in the phial ? "

" Not the slightest. And I have none to spare
for analytical purposes."

Nayland Smith began stuffing mixture into the
hot pipe-bowl, and dropping an almost equal
quantity on the floor.

" I cannot rest, Petrie," he said. " I am
itching to get to work. Yet, a false move,
and — "

He lighted his pipe, and stood staring from
the window.

" I shall, of course, take a needle-syringe with
me," I explained.

Smith made no reply.

" If I but knew the composition of the drug
which produced the semblance of death," I con-
tinued, " my fame would long survive my ashes."

My friend did not turn. But:

" She said it was something he put in the
wine?" he jerked.

" In the wine, yes."

Silence fell. My thoughts reverted to Kara-
maneh, whom Dr. Fu-Manchu held in bonds
stronger than any slave-chains. For, with Aziz,
her brother, suspended between life and death,
what could she do save obey the mandates of the

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 291

cunning Chinaman? What perverted genius
was his! If that treasury of obscure wisdom
which he, perhaps alone of living men, had rifled,
could but be thrown open to the sick and suffer-
ing, the name of Dr. Fu-Manchu would rank with
the golden ones in the history of healing.

Nayland Smith suddenly turned, and the ex-
pression upon his face amazed me.

" Look up the next train to L ! " he rapped.

"To L ? What—?"

" There's the Bradshaw. We haven't a minute
to waste."

In his voice was the imperative note I knew
so well; in his eyes was the light which told of
an urgent need for action — a portentous truth
suddenly grasped.

" One in half-an-hour — the last."

"We must catch it."

No further word of explanation he vouchsafed,
but darted off to dress; for he had spent the
afternoon pacing the room in his dressing-gown
and smoking without intermission.

Out and to the corner we hurried, and leaped
into the first taxi upon the rank. Smith en-
joined the man to hasten, and we were off — all
in that whirl of feverish activity which char-
acterized my friend's movements in times of im-
portant action.

292 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

He sat glancing impatiently from the window
and twitching at the lobe of his ear.

" I know you will forgive me, old man," he
said, "but there is a little problem which I am
trying to work out in my mind. Did you bring
the things I mentioned? "

" Yes."

Conversation lapsed, until, just as the cab
turned into the station, Smith said:

" Should you consider Lord Southery to have
been the first constructive engineer of his time,
Petrie?"

" Undoubtedly," I replied.

" Greater than Von Homber, of Berlin? "

" Possibly not. But Von Homber has been
dead for three years."

" Three years, is it? "

" Roughly."

"Ah!"

We reached the station in time to secure a
non-corridor compartment to ourselves, and to
allow Smith leisure carefully to inspect the oc-
cupants of all the others, from the engine to the
guard's van. He was muffled up to the eyes, and
he warned me to keep out of sight in the corner
of the compartment. In fact, his behavior had
me bursting with curiosity. The train having
started :

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 293

"Don't imagine, Petrie," said Smith, "that
I am trying to lead you blindfolded in order
later to dazzle you with my perspicacity. I am
simply afraid that this may be a wild-goose
chase. The idea upon which I am acting does
not seem to have struck you. I wish it had.
The fact would argue in favor of its being sound."

" At present I am hopelessly mystified."

"Well, then, I will not bias you towards my
view. But just study the situation, and see if
you can arrive at the reason for this sudden jour-
ney. I shall be distinctly encouraged if you suc-
ceed."

But I did not succeed, and since Smith ob-
viously was unwilling to enlighten me, I pressed
him no more. The train stopped at Rugby,
where he was engaged with the stationmaster in
making some mysterious arrangements. At

L , however, their object became plain, for a

high-power car was awaiting us, and into this we
hurried and ere the greater number of passen-
gers had reached the platform were being driven
off at headlong speed along the moon-bathed
roads.

Twenty minutes' rapid traveling, and a white
mansion leaped into the line of sight, standing
out vividly against its woody backing.

"Stradwick Hall," said Smith. "The home

294 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

of Lord Southery. We are first — but Dr. Fu-
Manchu was on the train."

Then the truth dawned upon the gloom of my;
perplexity*

Chapter XXIII

4 4"\Z^^-^ extraordinary proposal fills me
j( with horror, Mr. Smith ! "

The sleek little man in the dress
suit, who looked like a head waiter (but was
the trusted legal adviser of the house of
Southery) puffed at his cigar indignantly. Nay-
land Smith, whose restless pacing had led him
to the far end of the library, turned, a remote
but virile figure, and looked back to where I stood
by the open hearth with the solicitor.

" I am in your hands, Mr. Henderson/' he
said, and advanced upon the latter, his gray
eyes ablaze. " Save for the heir, who is abroad
on foreign service, you say there is no kin of
Lord Southery to consider. The word rests with
you. If I am wrong, and you agree to my pro-
posal, there is none whose susceptibilities will
suffer — "

" My own, sir ! "

" If I am right, and you prevent me from
acting, you become a murderer, Mr. Henderson."

295

296 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

The lawyer started, staring nervously up at
Smith, who now towered over him menacingly.

" Lord Southery was a lonely man," continued
my friend. " If I could have placed my proposi-
tion before one of his blood, I do not doubt what
my answer had been. Why do you hesitate?
Why do you experience this feeling of horror? "

Mr. Henderson stared down into the fire. His
constitutionally ruddy face was pale.

" It is entirely irregular, Mr. Smith. We
have not the necessary powers — "

Smith snapped his teeth together impatiently,
snatching his watch from his pocket and glancing
at it.

" I am vested with the necessary powers. I
will give you a written order, sir."

" The proceeding savors of paganism. Such
a course might be admissible in China, in
Burma — "

"Do you weigh a life against such quibbles?
Do you suppose that, granting my irresponsibil-
ity, Dr. Petrie would countenance such a thing
if he doubted the necessity?"

Mr. Henderson looked at me with pathetic
hesitance.

" There are guests in the house — mourners
who attended the ceremony to-day. They — "

" Will never know, if we are in error," inter'

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 297

rupted Smith. "Good God! why do you de-
lay? »

"You wish it to be kept secret?"

"You and I, Mr. Henderson, and Dr. Petrie

will go now. We require no other witnesses.

We are answerable only to our consciences."
The lawyer passed his hand across his damp

brow.

" I have never in my life been called upon to
come to so momentous a decision in so short a
time," he confessed.

But, aided by Smith's indomitable will, he
made his decision. As its result, we three, look-
ing and feeling like conspirators, hurried across
the park beneath a moon whose placidity was a
rebuke to the turbulent passions which reared
their strangle-growth in the garden of England.
Not a breath of wind stirred amid the leaves.
The calm of perfect night soothed everything to
slumber. Yet, if Smith were right (and I did
not doubt him), the green eyes of Dr. Fu-Man-
chu had looked upon the scene; and I found
myself marveling that its beauty had not wilted
up. Even now the dread Chinaman must be near
to us.

As Mr. Henderson unlocked the ancient iron
gates he turned to Nayland Smith. His face
twitched oddlv.

298 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

" Witness that I do this unwillingly/' he said
— " most unwillingly."

" Mine be the responsibility," was the reply.

Smith's voice quivered, responsive to the nerv-
ous vitality pent up within that lean frame. He
stood motionless, listening — and I knew for
whom he listened. He peered about him to
right and left — and I knew whom he expected
but dreaded to see.

Above us now the trees looked down with a
solemnity different from the aspect of the
monarchs of the park, and the nearer we came to
our journey's end the more somber and lowering
bent the verdant arch — or so it seemed.

By that path, patched now with pools of moon-
light, Lord Southery had passed upon his bier,
with the sun to light his going; by that path
several generations of Stradwicks had gone to
their last resting-place.

To the doors of the vault the moon rays found
free access. No branch, no leaf, intervened. Mr.
Henderson's face looked ghastly. The keys
which he carried rattled in his hand.

" Light the lantern," he said unsteadily.

Nayland Smith, who again had been peering
suspiciously about into the shadows, struck a
match and lighted the lantern which he carried.
He turned to the solicitor.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 299

" Be calm, Mr. Henderson,'5 he said sternly.
" It is your plain duty to your client."

" God be my witness that I doubt it," replied
Henderson, and opened the door.

We descended the steps. The air beneath was
damp and chill. It touched us as with clammy
fingers; and the sensation was not wholly
physical.

Before the narrow mansion which now sufficed
Lord Southery, the great engineer whom kings
had honored, Henderson reeled and clutched at
me for support. Smith and I had looked to him
for no aid in our uncanny task, and rightly.

With averted eyes he stood over by the steps
of the tomb, whilst my friend and myself set to
work. In the pursuit of my profession I had
undertaken labors as unpleasant, but never amid
an environment such as this. It seemed that gen-
erations of Stradwicks listened to each turn of
every screw.

At last it was done, and the pallid face of
Lord Southery questioned the intruding light.
Nayland Smith's hand was as steady as a rigid
bar when he raised the lantern. Later, I knew,
there would be a sudden releasing of the tension
of will — a reaction physical and mental — but
not until his work was finished.

That my own hand was steady I ascribed to one

300 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

thing solely — professional zeal. For, under
conditions which, in the event of failure and ex-
posure, must have led to an unpleasant inquiry
by the British Medical Association, I was about
to attempt an experiment never before essayed
by a physician of the white races.

Though I failed, though I succeeded, that it
ever came before the B.M.A., or any other council,
was improbable; in the former event, all but
impossible. But the knowledge that I was about
to practice charlatanry, or what any one of my
fellow-practitioners must have designated as
such, was with me. Yet so profound had my be-
lief become in the extraordinary being whose
existence was a danger to the world that I reveled
in my immunity from official censure. I was
glad that it had fallen to my lot to take at least
one step — though blindly — into the future of
medical science.

So far as my skill bore me, Lord Southery was
dead. Unhesitatingly, I would have given a
death certificate, save for two considerations.
The first, although his latest scheme ran contrary
from the interests of Dr. Fu-Manchu, his genius,
diverted into other channels, would serve the
yellow group better than his death. The sec-
ond, I had seen the boy Aziz raised from a state
as like death as this.

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 301

From the phial of amber-hued liquid which
I had with me, I charged the needle syringe. J
made the injection, and waited.

" If he is really dead ! " whispered Smith. " It
seems incredible that he can have survived for
three days without food. Yet I have known a
fakir to go for a week."

Mr. Henderson groaned.

Watch in hand, I stood observing the gray
face.

A second passed; another; a third. In the
fourth the miracle began. Over the seemingly
cold clay crept the hue of pulsing life. It came
in waves — in waves which corresponded with
the throbbing of the awakened heart; which
swept fuller and stronger ; which filled and quick-
ened the chilled body.

As we rapidly freed the living man from the
trappings of the dead one, Southery, uttering a
stifled scream, sat up, looked about him with
half-glazed eyes, and fell back.

" My God ! " cried Smith.

" It is all right," I said, and had time to note
how my voice had assumed a professional tone.
" A little brandy from my flask is all that is nec-
essary now."

" You have two patients, Doctor," rapped my
friend.

302 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

Mr. Henderson had fallen in a swoon to the
floor of the vault.

" Quiet," whispered Smith ; " he is here."

He extinguished the light.

I supported Lord Southery. " What has hap-
pened? " he kept moaning. " Where am I? Oh,
God! what has happened?"

I strove to reassure him in a whisper, and
placed my traveling coat about him. The door
at the top of the mausoleum steps we had re-
closed but not relocked. Now, as I upheld the
man whom literally we had rescued from the
grave, I heard the door reopen. To aid Hender-
son I could make no move. Smith was breathing
hard beside me. I dared not think what was
about to happen, nor what its effects might be
upon Lord Southery in his exhausted condition.

Through the Memphian dark of the tomb cut a
spear of light, touching the last stone of the
stairway.

A guttural voice spoke some words rapidly,
and I knew that Dr. Fu-Manchu stood at the
head of the stairs. Although I could not see
my friend, I became aware that Nayland Smith
had his revolver in his hand, and I reached into
my pocket for mine.

At last the cunning Chinaman was about to
fall into a trap. It would require all his genius,

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 303

I thought, to save him to-night. Unless his sus-
picions were aroused by the unlocked door, his
capture was imminent.

Someone was descending the steps.

In my right hand I held my revolver, and with'
my left arm about Lord Southery, I waited
through ten such seconds of suspense as I have
rarely known.

The spear of light plunged into the well of
darkness again.

Lord Southery, Smith and myself were hidden
by the angle of the wall; but full upon the
purplish face of Mr. Henderson the beam shone.
In some way it penetrated to the murk in his
mind; and he awakened from his swoon with a
hoarse cry, struggled to his feet, and stood look-
ing up the stair in a sort of frozen horror.

Smith was past him at a bound. Something
flashed towards him as the light was extin-
guished. I saw him duck, and heard the knife
ring upon the floor.

I managed to move sufficiently to see at the
top, as I fired up the stairs, the yellow face of
Dr. Fu-Manchu, to see the gleaming, chatoyant
eyes, greenly terrible, as they sought to pierce
the gloom. A flying figure was racing up, three
steps at a time (that of a brown man scantily
clad). He stumbled and fell, by which I knew

304 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

that he was hit ; but went on again, Smith hard
on his heels.

" Mr. Henderson I " I cried, " relight the
lantern and take charge of Lord Southery. Here
is my flask on the floor. I rely upon you."

Smith's revolver spoke again as I went bounds
ing up the stair. Black against the square of
moonlight I saw him stagger, I saw him fall. As
he fell, for the third time, I heard the crack of
his revolver.

Instantly I was at his side. Somewhere along
the black aisle beneath the trees receding foot-
steps pattered.

" Are you hurt, Smith? " I cried anxiously.

He got upon his feet.

" He has a dacoit with him," he replied, and
showed me the long curved knife which he held in
his hand, a full inch of the blade bloodstained.
" A near thing for me, Petrie."

I heard the whir of a restarted motor.

" We have lost him," said Smith.

" But we have saved Lord Southery," I said.
" Fu-Manchu will credit us with a skill as great
as his own."

" We must get to the car," Smith muttered,
" and try to overtake them. Ugh ! my left arm is
useless."

" It would be mere waste of time to attempt

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 305

Ttio overtake them," I argued, " for we have no
idea in which direction they will proceed."

" I have a very good idea," snapped Smith;
" Stradwick Hall is less than ten miles from the
coast. There is only one practicable means of
conveying an unconscious man secretly from here
to London."

" You think he meant to take him from here
to London?"

" Prior to shipping him to China ; I think so.
His clearing-house is probably on the Thames."

"A boat?"

"A yacht, presumably, is lying off the coast
in readiness. Fu-Manchu may even have de-
signed to ship him direct to China."

Lord Southery, a bizarre figure, my traveling
coat wrapped about him, and supported by his
solicitor, who was almost as pale as himself,
emerged from the vault into the moonlight.

" This is a triumph for you, Smith," I said.

The throb of Fu-Manchu's car died into faint-
ness and was lost in the night's silence.

" Only half a triumph," he replied. " But we
still have another chance — the raid on his house.
When will the word come from Karamaneh?"

Southery spoke in a weak voice.

" Gentlemen," he said, " it seems I am raised
from the dead."

306 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

It was the weirdest moment of the night
wherein we heard that newly buried man speak
from the mold of his tomb.

" Yes," replied Smith slowly, " and spared
from the fate of Heaven alone knows how many
men of genius. The yellow society lacks a
Southery, but that Dr. Fu-Manchu was in Ger-
many three years ago I have reason to believe;
so that, even without visiting the grave of your
great Teutonic rival, who suddenly died at about
that time, I venture to predict that they have a
Von Homber. And the futurist group in China
knows how to make men work ! "

Chapter XXIV

FROM the rescue of Lord Southery my story
bears me mercilessly on to other things.
I may not tarry, as more leisurely penmen,
to round my incidents; they were not of my
choosing. I may not pause to make you better
acquainted with the figure of my drama; its
scheme is none of mine. Often enough, in those
days, I found a fitness in the lines of Omar :

We are no other than a moving show

Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go

Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern held
In Midnight by the Master of the Show.

But " the Master of the Show," in this case,
was Dr. Fu-Manchu!

I have been asked many times since the days
with which these records deal: Who was Dr.
Fu-Manchu? Let me confess here that my final
answer must be postponed. I can only indicate,
at this place, the trend of my reasoning, and
leave my reader to form whatever conclusion he
pleases.

307

308 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

What group can we isolate and label as re-
sponsible for the overthrow of the Manchus?
The casual student of modern Chinese history
will reply: "Young China." This is unsatis-
factory. What do we mean by Young China?
In my own hearing Fu-Manchu had disclaimed,
with scorn, association with the whole of that
movement; and assuming that the name were
not an assumed one, he clearly can have been no
anti-Manchu, no Republican.

The Chinese Republican is of the mandarin
class, but of a new generation which veneers its
Confucianism with Western polish. These
youthful and unbalanced reformers, in conjunc-
tion with older but no less ill-balanced provincial
politicians, may be said to represent Young
China. Amid such turmoils as this we invari-
ably look for, and invariably find, a Third Party.
In my opinion, Dr. Fu-Manchu was one of the
leaders of such a party.

Another question often put to me was : Where
did the Doctor hide during the time that he pur-
sued his operations in London? This is more
susceptible of explanation. For a time Nayland
Smith supposed, as I did myself, that the opium
den adjacent to the old Ratcliff Highway was the
Chinaman's base of operations ; later we came to
believe that the mansion near Windsor was his

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 309

hiding-place, and later still, the hulk lying off
the downstream flats. But I think I can state
with confidence that the spot which he had
chosen for his home was neither of these, but
the East End riverside building which I was the
first to enter. Of this I am all but sure ; for the
reason that it not only was the home of Fu-
Manchu, of Karamaneh, and of her brother, Aziz,
but the home of something else — of something
which I shall speak of later.

The dreadful tragedy (or series of tragedies)
which attended the raid upon the place will al-
ways mark in my memory the supreme horror
of a horrible case. Let me endeavor to explain
what occurred.

By the aid of Karamaneh, you have seen how
we had located the whilom warehouse, which,
from the exterior, was so drab and dreary, but
which within was a place of wondrous luxury.
At the moment selected by our beautiful accom-
plice, Inspector Weymouth and a body of detect-
ives entirely surrounded it ; a river police launch
lay off the wharf which opened from it on the
river-side; and this upon a singularly black
night, than which a better could not have been
chosen.

"You will fulfill your promise to me?" said
Karamaneh, and looked up into my face.

310 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCKS

She was enveloped in a big, loose cloak, aixtl
from the shadow of the hood her wonderful eyes
gleamed out like stars.

"What do you wish us to do?" asked Nay-
land Smith.

" You — and Dr. Petrie," she replied swiftly,
" must enter first, and bring out Aziz. Until he
is safe — until he is out of that place — you are
to make no attempt upon — "

"Upon Dr. Fu-Manchu?" interrupted Wey-
mouth; for Karamaneh hesitated to pronounce
the dreaded name, as she always did. " But how
can we be sure that there is no trap laid for
us?"

The Scotland Yard man did not entirely share
my confidence in the integrity of this Eastern
girl whom he knew to have been a creature of
the Chinaman's.

" Aziz lies in the private room," she explained
eagerly, her old accent more noticeable than
usual. " There is only one of the Burmese men
in the house, and he — he dare not enter with-
out orders ! "

"But Fu-Manchu?"

" We have nothing to fear from him. He will
be your prisoner within ten minutes from now!
I have no time for words — you must believe ! "
She stamped her foot impatiently.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 311

"And the dacoit?" snapped Smith.

" He also."

" I think perhaps I'd better come in, too," said
-Weymouth slowly.

Karamaneh shrugged her shoulders with quick
impatience, and unlocked the door in the higli
brick wall which divided the gloomy, evil-smell-
ing court from the luxurious apartments of Dr.
Fu-Manchu.

" Make no noise/' she warned. And Smith
and myself followed her along the uncarpeted
passage beyond.

Inspector Weymouth, with a final word of in-
struction to his second in command, brought up
the rear. The door was reclosed; a few paces
farther on a second was unlocked. Passing
through a small room, unfurnished, a farther
passage led us to a balcony. The transition was
startling.

Darkness was about us now, and silence: a
perfumed, slumberous darkness — a silence full
of mystery. For, beyond the walls of the apart-
ment whereon we looked down waged the un-
ceasing battle of sounds that is the hymn of the
great industrial river. About the scented con-
fines which bounded us now floated the smoke-
laden vapors of the Lower Thames.

From the metallic but infinitely human

312 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

clangor of dock-side life, from the unpleasant
but homely odors which prevail where ships
swallow in and belch out the concrete evidences
of commercial prosperity, we had come into this
incensed stillness, where one shaded lamp painted
dim enlargements of its Chinese silk upon the
nearer walls, and left the greater part of the
room the darker for its contrast.

Nothing of the Thames-side activity — of the
riveting and scraping — the bumping of bales

— the bawling of orders — the hiss of steam —
penetrated to this perfumed place. In the pool
of tinted light lay the deathlike figure of a dark-
haired boy, Karamaneh's muffled form bending
over him.

" At last I stand in the house of Dr. Fu-Man-
chu ! " whispered Smith.

Despite the girl's assurance, we knew that
proximity to the sinister Chinaman must be
fraught with danger. We stood, not in the
lion's den, but in the serpent's lair.

From the time when Nayland Smith had come
from Burma in pursuit of this advance-guard
of a cogent Yellow Peril, the face of Dr. Fu-
Manchu rarely had been absent from my dreams
day or night. The millions might sleep in peace

— the millions in whose cause we labored ! — but
we who knew the reality of the danger knew;

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 313

that a veritable octopus had fastened upon Eng-
land — a yellow octopus whose head was that of
Dr. Fu-Manchu, whose tentacles were dacoity,
thuggee, modes of death, secret and swift, which
in the darkness plucked men from life and left
no clew behind.

a Karamaneh ! " I called softly.

The muffled form beneath the lamp turned so
that the soft light fell upon the lovely face of the
slave girl. She who had been a pliant instru-
ment in the hands of Fu-Manchu now was to be
the means whereby society should be rid of him.

She raised her finger warningly ; then beckoned
me to approach.

My feet sinking in the rich pile of the carpet,
I came through the gloom of the great apart-
ment in to the patch of light, and, Karamaneh
beside me, stood looking down upon the boy. It
was Aziz, her brother; dead so far as Western
lore had power to judge, but kept alive in that
deathlike trance by the uncanny power of the
Chinese doctor.

" Be quick," she said ; " be quick ! Awaken
him ! I am afraid."

From the case which I carried I took out a
needle-syringe and a phial containing a small
quantity of amber-hued liquid. It was a drug
not to be found in the British Pharmacopoeia.

314 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

Of its constitution I knew nothing. Although
I had had the phial in my possession for some
days I had not dared to devote any of its pre-
cious contents to analytical purposes. The am-
ber drops spelled life for the boy Aziz, spelled
success for the mission of Nayland Smith, spelled
ruin for the fiendish Chinaman.

I raised the white coverlet. The boy, fully
dressed, lay with his arms crossed upon his
breast. I discerned the mark of previous in-
jections as, charging the syringe from the phial,
I made what I hoped would be the last of such
experiments upon him. I would have given half
of my small worldly possessions to have known
the real nature of the drug which was now cours-
ing through the veins of Aziz — which was tint-
ing the grayed face with the olive tone of life;
which, so far as my medical training bore me,
was restoring the dead to life.

But such was not the purpose of my visit. I
was come to remove from the house of Dr. Fu-
Manchu the living chain which bound Karamaneh
to him. The boy alive and free, the Doctor's
hold upon the slave girl would be broken.

My lovely companion, her hands convulsively
clasped, knelt and devoured with her eyes the
face of the boy who was passing through the
most amazing physiological change in the his-

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 31S

tory of therapeutics. The peculiar perfume
which she wore — which seemed to be a part of
her — which always I associated with her — was
faintly perceptible. Karamaneh was breathing
rapidly.

" You have nothing to fear," I whispered ;
" see, he is reviving. In a few moments all will
be well with him."

The hanging lamp with its garishly colored
shade swung gently above us, wafted, it seemed,
by some draught which passed through the apart-
ment. The boy's heavy lids began to quiver, and
Karamaneh nervously clutched my arm, and
held me so whilst we watched for the long-lashed
eyes to open. The stillness of the place was
positively unnatural; it seemed inconceivable
that all about us was the discordant activity of
the commercial East End. Indeed, this eerie
silence was becoming oppressive; it began posi-
tively to appall me.

Inspector Weymouth's wondering face peeped
over my shoulder.

"Where is Dr. Fu-Manchu?" I whispered, as
Nayland Smith in turn appeared beside me. " I
cannot understand the silence of the house — "

" Look about," replied Karamaneh, never tak-
ing her eyes from the face of Aziz.

I peered around the shadowy walls. Tall

316 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

glass cases there were, shelves and niches : where
once, from the gallery above, I had seen the
tubes and retorts, the jars of unfamiliar organ-
isms, the books of unfamiliar lore, the impedi-
menta of the occult student and man of science
— the visible evidences of Fu-Manchu's presence.
Shelves — cases — niches — were bare. Of the
complicated appliances unknown to civilized
laboratories, wherewith he pursued his strange
experiments, of the tubes wherein he isolated
the bacilli of unclassified diseases, of the yellow-
bound volumes for a glimpse at which (had they
known of their contents) the great men of Har-
ley Street would have given a fortune — no
trace remained. The silken cushions; the in-
laid tables; all were gone.

The room was stripped, dismantled. Had
Fu-Manchu fled? The silence assumed a new
significance. His dacoits and kindred ministers
of death all must have fled, too.

" You have let him escape us ! " I said rapidly.
" You promised to aid us to capture him — to
send us a message — and you have delayed
until—"

" No," she said ; " no ! " and clutched at my
arm again, "Oh! is he not reviving slowly?
Are you sure you have made no mistake? "

Her thoughts were all for the boy; and her

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 31T

solicitude touched me. I again examined Aziz,
the most remarkable patient of my busy profes-
sional career.

As I counted the strengthening pulse, he
opened his dark eyes — which were so like the
eyes of Karamaneh — and, with the girl's eager
arms tightly about him, sat up, looking wonder-
ingly around.

Karamaneh pressed her cheek to his, whis-
pering loving words in that softly spoken Arabic
which had first betrayed her nationality to Nay-
land Smith. I handed her my flask, which I
had filled with wine.

" My promise is fulfilled ! " I said. " You are
free! Now for Fu-Manchu! But first let us
admit the police to this house ; there is something
uncanny in its stillness."

" No," she replied. " First let my brother be
taken out and placed in safety. Will you carry
him?"

She raised her face to that of Inspector Wey-
mouth, upon which was written awe and wonder.

The burly detective lifted the boy as tenderly
as a woman, passed through the shadows to the
stairway, ascended, and was swallowed up in
the gloom. Nayland Smith's eyes gleamed fever-
ishly. He turned to Karamaneh.

"You are not playing with us?" he said

318 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

harshly. "We have done our part; it remains
for you to do yours."

"Do not speak so loudly," the girl begged.
" He is near us — and, oh, God, I fear him so ! "

"Where is he?" persisted my friend.

Karamaneh's eyes were glassy with fear now,

" You must not touch him until the police are
here," she said — but from the direction of her
quick, agitated glances I knew that, her brother
safe now, she feared for me, and for me alone.
Those glances sent my blood dancing; for Kara-
maneh was an Eastern jewel which any man of
flesh and blood must have coveted had he known
it to lie within his reach. Her eyes were twin
lakes of mystery which, more than once, I had
known the desire to explore.

" Look — beyond that curtain " — her voice
was barely audible — "but do not enter. Even
as he is, I fear him."

Her voice, her palpable agitation, prepared
us for something extraordinary. Tragedy and
Fu-Manchu were never far apart. Though we
were two, and help was so near, we were in the
abode of the most cunning murderer who ever
came out of the East.

It was with strangely mingled emotions that
I crossed the thick carpet, Nayland Smith be-
side me, and drew aside the draperies conceal-

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 319

ing a door, to which Karamaneh had pointed.
Then, upon looking into the dim place beyond,
all else save what it held was forgotten.

We looked upon a small, square room, the walls
draped with fantastic Chinese tapestry, the
floor strewn with cushions; and reclining in a
corner, where the faint, blue light from a lamp,
placed upon a low table, painted grotesque
shadows about the cavernous face — was Dr.
Fu-Manchu !

At sight of him my heart leaped — and seemed
to suspend its functions, so intense was the hor-
ror which this man's presence inspired in me.
My hand clutching the curtain, I stood watching
him. The lids veiled the malignant green eyes,
but the thin lips seemed to smile. Then Smith
silently pointed to the hand which held a little
pipe. A sickly perfume assailed my nostrils,
and the explanation of the hushed silence, and
the ease with which we had thus far executed
our plan, came to me. The cunning mind was
torpid — lost in a brutish world of dreams.

Fu-Manchu was in an opium sleep !

The dim light traced out a network of tiny
lines, which covered the yellow face from the
pointed chin to the top of the great domed brow,
and formed deep shadow pools in the hollows be-
neath his eyes. At last we had triumphed.

320 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

I could not determine the depth of his obscene
trance; and mastering some of my repugnance,
and forgetful of Karamaneh's warning, I was
about to step forward into the room, loaded with
its nauseating opium fumes, when a soft breath
fanned my cheek.

" Do not go in ! " came Karamaneh's warning
voice — hushed — trembling.

Her little hand grasped my arm. She drew
Smith and myself back from the door.

" There is danger there ! " she whispered.
" Do not enter that room ! The police must
reach him in some way — and drag him out !
Do not enter that room ! "

The girl's voice quivered hysterically ; her eyes
blazed into savage flame. The fierce resentment
born of dreadful wrongs was consuming her now ;
but fear of Fu-Manchu held her yet. Inspector
Weymouth came down the stairs and joined
us.

" I have sent the boy to Eyman's room at the
station," he said. " The divisional surgeon will
look after him until you arrive, Dr. Petrie. All
is ready now. The launch is just off the wharf
and every side of the place under observation.
"Where's our man? "

He drew a pair of handcuffs from his pocket
and raised his eyebrows interrogatively. The

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 321

absence of sound — of any demonstration from
the uncanny Chinaman whom he was there to
arrest — puzzled him.

Nayland Smith jerked his thumb toward the
curtain.

At that, and before we could utter a word,
Weymouth stepped to the draped door. He was
a man who drove straight at his goal and saved
reflections for subsequent leisure. I think,
moreover, that the atmosphere of the place
(stripped as it was it retained its heavy, volup-
tuous perfume) had begun to get a hold upon
him. He was anxious to shake it off; to be up
and doing.

He pulled the curtain aside and stepped into
the room. Smith and I perforce followed him.
Just within the door the three of us stood look-
ing across at the limp thing which had spread
terror throughout the Eastern and Western
world. Helpless as Fu-Manchu was, he inspired
terror now, though the giant intellect was inert
— stupefied.

In the dimly lit apartment we had quitted I
heard Karamaneh utter a stifled scream. But
it came too late.

As though cast up by a volcano, the silken
cushions, the inlaid table with its blue-shaded
Umo, the garish walls, the sprawling figure with

322 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

the ghastly light playing upon its features — •
quivered, and shot upward!

So it seemed to me; though, in the ensuing
instant I remembered, too late, a previous ex-
perience of the floors of Fu-Manchu's private
apartments; I knew what had indeed befallen
us. A trap had been released beneath our feet.

I recall falling — but have no recollection of
the end of my fall — of the shock marking the
drop. I only remember fighting for my life
against a stifling something which had me by the
throat. I knew that I was being suffocated, but
my hands met only the deathly emptiness.

Into a poisonous well of darkness I sank. I
could not cry out. I was helpless. Of the fate
of my companions I knew nothing — could sur-
mise nothing.

Then ... all consciousness ended.

Chapter XXV

I WAS being carried along a dimly lighted,
tunnel-like place, slung, sackwise, across the
shoulder of a Burman. He was not a big
man, but he supported my considerable weight
with apparent ease. A deadly nausea held me,
but the rough handling had served to restore me
to consciousness. My hands and feet were
closely lashed. I hung limply as a wet towel:
I felt that this spark of tortured life which had
flickered up in me must ere long finally become
extinguished.

A fancy possessed me, in these the first mo-
ments of my restoration to the world of realities,
that I had been smuggled into China; and as I
swung head downward I told myself that the
huge, puffy things which strewed the path were
a species of giant toadstool, unfamiliar to me
and possibly peculiar to whatever district of
China I now was in.

The air was hot, steamy, and loaded with a
smell as of rotting vegetation. I wondered why
my bearer so scrupulously avoided touching any

323

324 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

of the unwholesome-looking growths in passing-
through what seemed a succession of cellars, but
steered a tortuous course among the bloated, un-
natural shapes, lifting his bare brown feet with
a catlike delicacy.

He passed under a low arch, dropped me
roughly to the ground and ran back. Half
stunned, I lay watching the agile brown body
melt into the distances of the cellars. Their
walls and roof seemed to emit a faint, phos-
phorescent light.

" Petrie ! n came a weak voice from somewhere
ahead. . . . " Is that you, Petrie?"

It was Nayland Smith!

"Smith!" I said, and strove to sit up. But
the intense nausea overcame me, so that I all
but swooned.

I heard his voice again, but could attach no
meaning to the words which he uttered. A sound
of terrific blows reached my ears, too.

The Burman reappeared, bending under the
heavy load which he bore. For, as he picked his
way through the bloated things which grew upon
the floors of the cellars, I realized that he was
carrying the inert body of Inspector Weymouth.
And I found time to compare the strength of the
little brown man with that of a Nile beetle, which
can raise many times its own weight.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 325

Then, behind him, appeared a second figure,
which immediately claimed the whole of my er-
rant attention.

" Fu-Manchu ! " hissed my friend, from the
darkness which concealed him.

It was indeed none other than Fu-Manchu —
the Fu-Manchu whom we had thought to be
helpless. The deeps of the Chinaman's cunning
— the fine quality of his courage, were forced
upon me as amazing facts.

He had assumed the appearance of a drugged
opium-smoker so well as to dupe me — a medical
man ; so well as to dupe Karamaneh — whose
experience of the noxious habit probably was
greater than my own. And, with the gallows
dangling before him, he had waited — played the
part of a lure — whilst a body of police actually
surrounded the place!

I have since thought that the room probably
was one which he actually used for opium de-
bauches, and the device of the trap was intended
to protect him during the comatose period.

Now, holding a lantern above his head, the
deviser of the trap whereinto we, mouselike, had
blindly entered, came through the cellars, fol-
lowing the brown man who carried Weymouth.
The faint rays of the lantern (it apparently con-
tained a candle) revealed a veritable forest of

326 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

the gigantic fungi — poisonously colored — hide«
ously swollen — climbing from the floor up the
slimy walls — clinging like horrid parasites to
such part of the arched roof as was visible to me.

Fu-Manchu picked his way through the fungi
ranks as daintily as though the distorted, tumid
things had been viper-headed.

The resounding blows which I had noted be-
fore, and which had never ceased, culminated in
a splintering crash. Dr. Fu-Manchu and his
servant, who carried the apparently insensible
detective, passed in under the arch, Fu-Manchu
glancing back once along the passages. The
lantern he extinguished, or concealed; and
whilst I waited, my mind dully surveying mem-
ories of all the threats which this uncanny being
had uttered, a distant clamor came to my ears.

Then, abruptly, it ceased. Dr. Fu-Manchu
had closed a heavy door; and to my surprise I
perceived that the greater part of it was of glass.
The will-o'-the-wisp glow which played around
the fungi rendered the vista of the cellars faintly
luminous, and visible to me from where I lay.
Fu-Manchu spoke softly. His voice, its guttural
I note alternating with a sibilance on certain
words, betrayed no traces of agitation. The
man's unbroken calm had in it something in-
human. For he had just perpetrated an act of

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 327

daring unparalleled in my experience, and, in the
clamor now shut out by the glass door I tardily
recognized the entrance of the police into some
barricaded part of the house — the coming of
those who would save us — who would hold the
Chinese doctor for the hangman!

" I have decided/' he said deliberately, " that
you are more worthy of my attention than I had
formerly supposed. A man who can solve the
secret of the Golden Elixir " ( I had not solved it ;
I had merely stolen some) " should be a valuable
acquisition to my Council. The extent of the
plans of Mr. Commissioner IN ay land Smith and
of the English Scotland Yard it is incumbent
upon me to learn. Therefore, gentlemen, you
live — for the present ! "

" And you'll swing," came Weymouth's hoarse
voice, "in the near future! You and all your
yellow gang ! "

" I trust not," was the placid reply. " Most
of my people are safe: some are shipped as las-
cars upon the liners; others have departed by
different means. Ah ! "

That last word was the only one indicative of
excitement which had yet escaped him. A disk
of light danced among the brilliant poison hues
of the passages — but no sound reached us ; by
which I knew that the glass door must fit almost

328 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

hermetically. It was much cooler here than in
the place through which we had passed, and the
nausea began to leave me, my brain to grow more
clear. Had I known what was to follow I should
have cursed the lucidity of mind which now came
to me ; I should have prayed for oblivion — to
be spared the sight of that which ensued.

" It's Logan ! " cried Inspector Weymouth ;
and I could tell that he was struggling to free
himself of his bonds. From his voice it was evi-
dent that he, too, was recovering from the effects
of the narcotic which had been administered to
us all.

" Logan ! " he cried. " Logan ! This way —
help!"

But the cry beat back upon us in that enclosed
space and seemed to carry no farther than the
invisible walls of our prison.

" The door fits well," came Fu-Manchu's mock-
ing voice. " It is fortunate for us all that it is
so. This is my observation window, Dr. Petrie,
and you are about to enjoy an unique opportunity
of studying fungology. I have already drawn
your attention to the anaesthetic properties of
the lycoperdon, or common puff-ball. You may
have recognized the fumes? The chamber into
which you rashly precipitated yourselves was
charged with them. By a process of my own I

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHTJ 329

have greatly enhanced the value of the puff-ball
in this respect. Your friend, Mr. Weymouth,
proved the most obstinate subject; but he suc-
cumbed in fifteen seconds."

"Logan! Help! Help! This way, man ! "

Something very like fear sounded in Wey-
mouth's voice now. Indeed, the situation was
so uncanny that it almost seemed unreal. A
group of men had entered the farthermost cel-
lars, led by one who bore an electric pocket-lamp.
The hard, white ray danced from bloated gray
fungi to others of nightmare shape, of dazzling,
venomous brilliance. The mocking, lecture-room
voice continued:

"Note the snowy growth upon the roof, Doc-
tor. Do not be deceived by its size. It is a
giant variety of my own culture and is of the
order empusa. You, in England, are familiar
with the death of the common house-fly — which
is found attached to the window-pane by a coat-
ing of white mold. I have developed the spores
of this mold and have produced a giant species.
Observe the interesting effect of the strong light
upon my orange and blue amanita fungus ! "

Hard beside me I heard Nayland Smith groan,
Weymouth had become suddenly silent. For my
own part, I could have shrieked in pure horror.
For I knew what toas coming. I realized in one

330 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

agonized instant the significance of the dim lan-
tern, of the careful progress through the subter-
ranean fungi grove, of the care with which Fu-
Manchu and his servant had avoided touching
any of the growths. I knew, now, that Dr. Fu-
Manchu was the greatest fungologist the world
had ever known; was a poisoner to whom the
Borgias were as children — and I knew that the
detectives blindly were walking into a valley of
death.

Then it began — the unnatural scene — the
saturnalia of murder.

Like so many bombs the brilliantly colored
caps of the huge toadstool-like things alluded to
by the Chinaman exploded, as the white ray
sought them out in the darkness which alone
preserved their existence. A brownish cloud —
I could not determine whether liquid or powdery
— arose in the cellar.

I tried to close my eyes — or to turn them
away from the reeling forms of the men who
were trapped in that poison-hole. It was useless :
I must look.

The bearer of the lamp had dropped it, but
the dim, eerily illuminated gloom endured scarce
a second. A bright light sprang up — doubtless
at the touch of the fiendish being who now re-
sumed speech:

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 331

" Observe the symptoms of delirium, Doctor ! »

^ Out there, beyond the glass door, the unhappy
victims were laughing — tearing their garments
from their bodies — leaping — waving their arms
— were become maniacs!

" We will now release the ripe spores of giant
empusa," continued the wicked voice. " The air
of the second cellar being super-charged with
oxygen, they immediately germinate. Ah! it is
a triumph! That process is the scientific tri-
umph of my life ! "

Like powdered snow the white spores fell from
the roof, frosting the writhing shapes of the al-
ready poisoned men. Before my horrified gaze,
the fungus grew; it spread from the head to the
feet of those it touched ; it enveloped them as in
glittering shrouds. . . .

"They die like flies!" screamed Fu-Manchu,
with a sudden febrile excitement; and I felt as-
sured of something I had long suspected: that
that magnificent, perverted brain was the brain
of a homicidal maniac — though Smith would
never accept the theory.

"It is my fly-trap!" shrieked the Chinaman.
" And I am the god of destruction ! "

Chapter XXVI

THE clammy touch of the mist revived me.
The culmination of the scene in the poison
cellars, together with the effects of the
fumes which I had inhaled again, had deprived
me of consciousness. Now I knew that I was
afloat on the river. I still was bound: further-
more, a cloth was wrapped tightly about my
mouth, and I was secured to a ring in the deck.

By moving my aching head to the left I could
look down into the oily water; by moving it to
the right I could catch a glimpse of the em-
purpled face of Inspector Weymouth, who,
similarly bound and gagged, lay beside me, but
only of the feet and legs of Nayland Smith. For
I could not turn my head sufficiently far to see
more.

We were aboard an electric launch. I heard
the hated guttural voice of Fu-Manchu, subdued
now to its habitual calm, and my heart leaped to
hear the voice that answered him. It was that
of Karamaneh. His triumph was complete.

332

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 333

Clearly his plans for departure were complete;
his slaughter of the police in the underground
passages had been a final reckless demonstration
of which the Chinaman's subtle cunning would
have been incapable had he not known his escape
from the country to be assured.

What fate was in store for us? How would
he avenge himself upon the girl who had be-
trayed him to his enemies? What portion
awaited those enemies? He seemed to have
formed tbe singular determination to smuggle me
into China — but what did he purpose in the
case of WTeymouth? and in the case of Nayland
Smith?

All but silently we were feeling our way
through the mist. Astern died the clangor of
dock and wharf into a remote discord. Ahead
hung the foggy curtain veiling the traffic of the
great waterway ; but through it broke the calling
of sirens, the tinkling of bells.

The gentle movement of the screw ceased alto-
gether. The launch lay heaving slightly upon
the swells.

A distant throbbing grew louder — and some-
thing advanced upon us through the haze.

A bell rang and muffled by the fog a voice
proclaimed itself — a voice which I knew. I felt
Weymouth writhing impotently beside me ; heard

334 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

him mumbling incoherently ; and I knew that he,
too, had recognized the voice.

It was that of Inspector Ryman of the river
police ; and their launch was within biscuit-throw
of that upon which we lay!

"'Hoy! 'Hoy!"

I trembled. A feverish excitement claimed
me. They were hailing us. We carried no
lights; but now — and ignoring the pain which
shot from my spine to my skull I craned my neck
to the left — the port light of the police launch
glowed angrily through the mist.

I was unable to utter any save mumbling
sounds, and my companions were equally help-
less. It was a desperate position. Had the po-
lice seen us or had they hailed at random?

The light drew nearer.

" Launch, 'hoy ! "

They had seen us ! Fu-Manchu's guttural voice
spoke shortly — and our screw began to revolve
again; we leaped ahead into the bank of dark-
ness. Faint grew the light of the police launch
— and was gone. But I heard Ryman's voice
shouting.

u Full speed ! " came faintly through the dark-
ness. " Port ! Port ! "

Then the murk closed down, and with our
friends far astern of us we were racing deeper

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 335

into the fog banks — speeding seaward; though
of this I was unable to judge at the time.

On we raced, and on, sweeping over growing
swells. Once, a black, towering shape dropped
down upon us. Far above, lights blazed, bells
rang, vague cries pierced the fog. The launch
pitched and rolled perilously, but weathered the
wash of the liner which so nearly had concluded
this episode. It was such a journey as I had
taken once before, early in our pursuit of the
genius of the Yellow Peril; but this was in-
finitely more terrible; for now we were utterly
in Fu-Manchu's power.

A voice mumbled in my ear. I turned my
bound-up face; and Inspector Weymouth raised
his hands in the dimness and partly slipped the
bandage from his mouth.

" I've been working at the cords since we left
those filthy cellars," he whispered. " My wrists
are all cut, but when I've got out a knife and
freed my ankles — "

Smith had kicked him with his bound feet.
The detective slipped the bandage back to posi-
tion and placed his hands behind him again.
Dr. Fu-Manchu, wearing a heavy overcoat but
no hat, came aft. He was dragging Karamaneh
by the wrists. He seated himself on the cushions
near to us, pulling the girl down beside him.

336 THE INSIDIOUS DB. FU-MANCHU

Now, I could see her face — and the expression
in her beautiful eyes made me writhe.

Fu-Manchu was watching us, his discolored
teeth faintly visible in the dim light, to which
my eyes were becoming accustomed.

" Dr. Petrie," he said, " you shall be my hon-
ored guest at my home in China. You shall
assist me to revolutionize chemistry. Mr. Smith,
I fear you know more of my plans than I had
deemed it possible for you to have learned, and
I am anxious to know if you have a confidant.
Where your memory fails you, and my files and
wire jackets prove ineffectual, Inspector Wey-
mouth's recollections may prove more accurate."

He turned to the cowering girl — who shrank
away from him in pitiful, abject terror.

" In my hands, Doctor," he continued, " I hold
a needle charged with a rare culture. It is the
link between the bacilli and the fungi. You have
seemed to display an undue interest in the peach
and pearl which render my Karamaneh so de-
lightful, in the supple grace of her movements
and the sparkle of her eyes. You can never de-
vote your whole mind to those studies which I
have planned for you whilst such distractions
exist. A touch of this keen point, and the laugh-
ing Karamaneh becomes the shrieking hag — the
maniacal, mowing — "

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 337

Then, with an ox-like rush, Weymouth was
upon him!

Karamaneh, wrought upon past endurance,
with a sobbing cry, sank to the deck — and lay
still. I managed to writhe into a half-sitting
posture, and Smith rolled aside as the detective
and the Chinaman crashed down together.

Weymouth had one big hand at the Doctor's
yellow throat ; with his left he grasped the China-
man's right. It held the needle.

Now, I could look along the length of the little
craft, and, so far as it was possible to make out
in the fog, only one other was aboard — the
half-clad brown man who navigated her — and
who had carried us through the cellars. The
murk had grown denser and now shut us in like
a box. The throb of the motor — the hissing
breath of the two who fought — with so much
at issue — these sounds and the wash of the
water alone broke the eerie stillness.

By slow degrees, and with a reptilian agility
horrible to watch, Fu-Manchu was neutralizing
the advantage gained by Weymouth. His claw-
ish fingers were fast in the big man's throat;
the right hand with its deadly needle was forcing
down the left of his opponent. He had been
underneath, but now he was gaining the upper
place. His powers of physical endurance must

338 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

have been truly marvelous. His breath was
whistling through his nostrils significantly, but
Weymouth was palpably tiring.

The latter suddenly changed his tactics. By a
supreme effort, to which he was spurred, I think,
by the growing proximity of the needle, he raised
Fu-Manchu — by the throat and arm — and
pitched him sideways.

The Chinaman's grip did not relax, and the
two wrestlers dropped, a writhing mass, upon
the port cushions. The launch heeled over, and
my cry of horror was crushed back into my throat
by the bandage. For, as Fu-Manchu sought to
extricate himself, he overbalanced — fell back
— and, bearing Weymouth with him — slid into
the river!

The mist swallowed them up.

There are moments of which no man can recall
his mental impressions, moments so acutely hor-
rible that, mercifully, our memory retains noth-
ing of the emotions they occasioned. This was
one of them. A chaos ruled in my mind. I had
a vague belief that the Burman, forward, glanced
back. Then the course of the launch was
changed.

How long intervened between the tragic end
o£ that Gargantuan struggle and the time when

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 339

a black wall leaped suddenly up before us I can-
not pretend to state.

With a sickening jerk we ran aground. A loud
explosion ensued, and I clearly remember seeing
the brown man leap out into the fog — which
was the last I saw of him.

Water began to wash aboard.

Fully alive to our imminent peril, I fought with
the cords that bound me ; but I lacked poor Wey-
mouth's strength of wrist, and I began to accept
as a horrible and imminent possibility, a death
from drowning, within six feet of the bank.

Beside me, Nayland Smith was straining and
twisting. I think his object was to touch Kara-
maneh, in the hope of arousing her. Where he
failed in his project, the inflowing water suc-
ceeded. A silent prayer of thankfulness came
from my very soul when I saw her stir — when
I saw her raise her hands to her head — and
saw the big, horror-bright eyes gleam through
the mist veil.

Chapter XXVII

WE quitted the wrecked launch but a few
seconds before her stern settled down
into the river. Where the mud-bank
upon which we found ourselves was situated we
had no idea. But at least it was terra firma —
and we were free from Dr. Fu-Manchu.

Smith stood looking out towards the river.

" My God ! " he groaned. " My God ! "

He was thinking, as I was, of Weymouth.

And when, an hour later, the police boat lo-
cated us (on the mud-flats below Greenwich)1
and we heard that the toll of the poison cellars
was eight men, we also heard news of our brave
companion.

" Back there in the fog, sir," reported In-
spector Ryman, who was in charge, and his voice
was under poor command, " there was an un-
canny howling, and peals of laughter that I'm
going to dream about for weeks — "

Karamaneh, who nestled beside me like a
frightened child, shivered; and I knew that the
needle had done its work, despite Weymouth's
giant strength.

340

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 341

Smith swallowed noisily.

" Pray God the river has that yellow Satan,"
he said. " I would sacrifice a year of my life to
see his rat's body on the end of a grappling-
iron ! "

We were a sad party that steamed through
the fog homeward that night. It seemed almost
like deserting a staunch comrade to leave the
Sp0t — so nearly as we could locate it — where
Weymouth had put up that last gallant fight.
Our helplessness was pathetic, and although, had
the night been clear as crystal, I doubt if we
could have acted otherwise, it came to me that
this stinking murk was a new enemy which drove
us back in coward retreat.

But so many were the calls upon our activity,
and so numerous the stimulants to our initiative
in those times, that soon we had matter to relieve
our minds from this stress of sorrow.

There was Karamaneh to be considered —
Karamaneh and her brother. A brief counsel
was held, whereat it was decided that for the
present they should be lodged at a hotel.

" I shall arrange," Smith whispered to me, for
the girl was watching us, "to have the place
patrolled night and day."
"You cannot suppose — "
" Petrie ! I cannot and dare not suppose Fu-

342 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

Manchu dead until with my own eyes I have
seen him so ! "

Accordingly we conveyed the beautiful Ori-
ental girl and her brother away from that lux-
urious abode in its sordid setting. I will not
dwell upon the final scene in the poison cellars
lest I be accused of accumulating horror for hor-
ror's sake. Members of the fire brigade, helmed
against contagion, brought out the bodies of the
victims wrapped in their living shrouds. . . .

From Karamaneh we learned much of Fu-Man-
chu, little of herself.

"What am I? Does my poor history matter
— to anyone?" was her answer to questions
respecting herself.

And she would droop her lashes over her dark
eyes.

The dacoits whom the Chinaman had brought
to England originally numbered seven, we
learned. As you, having followed me thus far,
will be aware, we had thinned the ranks of the
Burmans. Probably only one now remained in
England. They had lived in a camp in the
grounds of the house near Windsor (which, as
we had learned at the time of its destruction,
the Doctor had bought outright). The Thames
had been his highway.

Other members of the group had occupied

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 343

quarters in various parts of the East End, where
sailormen of all nationalities congregate. Shen-
Yan-s had been the East End headquarters. He
had employed the hulk from the time of his ar-
rival, as a laboratory for a certain class of ex-
periments undesirable in proximity to a place of
residence.

Nayland Smith asked the girl on one occasion
if the Chinaman had had a private sea-going
vessel, and she replied in the affirmative. She
had never been on board, however, had never
even set eyes upon it, and could give us no in-
formation respecting its character. It had
sailed for China.

" You are sure," asked Smith keenly, " that it
has actually left? "

" I understood so, and that we were to follow
by another route."

" It would have been difficult for Fu-Manchu
to travel by a passenger boat? "

" I cannot say what were his plans."

In a state of singular uncertainty, then, readily
to be understood, we passed the days following
the tragedy which had deprived us of our fel-
low-worker.

Vividly I recall the scene at poor Weymouth's
home, on the day that we visited it. I then made
the acquaintance of the Inspector's brother.

344 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

Nayland Smith gave him a detailed account of
the last scene.

" Out there in the mist/' he concluded
wearily, " it all seemed very unreal."

" I wish to God it had been ! "

" Amen to that, Mr. Weymouth. But your
brother made a gallant finish. If ridding the
world of Fu-Manchu were the only good deed to
his credit, his life had been well spent."

James Weymouth smoked awhile in thought-
ful silence. Though but four and a half miles
S.S.E. of St. Paul's the quaint little cottage,
with its rustic garden, shadowed by the tall trees
which had so lined the village street before motor
'buses were, was a spot as peaceful and secluded
as any in broad England. But another shadow
lay upon it to-day — chilling, fearful. An in-
carnate evil had come out of the dim East and
in its dying malevolence had touched this home.

" There are two things I don't understand
about it, sir," continued Weymouth. "What
was the meaning of the horrible laughter which
the river police heard in the fog? And where
are the bodies? "

Karamaneh, seated beside me, shuddered at the
words. Smith, whose restless spirit granted him
little repose, paused in his aimless wanderings
about the room and looked at her.

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 345

In these latter days of his Augean labors to
purge England of the unclean thing which had
fastened upon her, my friend was more lean and
nervous-looking than I had ever known him. His
long residence in Burma had rendered him spare
and had burned his naturally dark skin to a cop-
pery hue; but now his gray eyes had grown fev-
erishly bright and his face so lean as at times to
appear positively emaciated. But I knew that
he was as fit as ever.

" This lady may be able to answer your first
question/' he said. " She and her brother were
for some time in the household of Dr. Fu-Man-
chu. In fact, Mr. Weymouth, Karamaneh, as her
name implies, was a slave."

Weymouth glanced at the beautiful, troubled
face with scarcely veiled distrust.

" You don't look as though you had come from
China, miss," he said, with a sort of unwilling
admiration.

" I do not come from China," replied Kara-
maneh. " My father was a pure Bedawee. But
my history does not matter." (At times there
was something imperious in her manner ; and to
this her musical accent added force.) "When
your brave brother, Inspector Weymouth, and
Dr. Fu-Manchu, were swallowed up by the river,
Fu-Manchu held a poisoned needle in his band.

346 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

The laughter meant that the needle had done its
work. Your brother had become mad ! "

Weymouth turned aside to hide his emotion.

" What was on the needle? " he asked huskily.

" It was something which he prepared from
the venom of a kind of swamp adder," she an-
swered. " It produces madness, but not always
death."

" He would have had a poor chance," said
Smith, " even had he been in complete possession
of his senses. At the time of the encounter we
must have been some considerable distance from
shore, and the fog was impenetrable."

" But how do you account for the fact that
neither of the bodies have been recovered? "

" Ryman of the river police tells me that per-
sons lost at that point are not always recovered
' — or not until a considerable time later."

There was a faint sound from the room above.
The news of that tragic happening out in the
mist upon the Thames had prostrated poor Mrs.
Weymouth.

" She hasn't been told half the truth," said her
brother-in-law. " She doesn't know about — the
poisoned needle. What kind of fiend was this
Dr. Fu-Manchu?" He burst out into a sudden
blaze of furious resentment. " John never told
me much, and you have let mighty little leak

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 347

into the papers. What was he? Who was he? "

Half he addressed the words to Smith, half to
Karamaneh.

" Dr. Fu-Manchu," replied the former, " was
the ultimate expression of Chinese cunning; a
phenomenon such as occurs but once in many
generations. He was a superman of incredible
genius, who, had he willed, could have revolu-
tionized science. There is a superstition in
some parts of China according to which, under
certain peculiar conditions (one of which is
proximity to a deserted burial-ground) an evil
spirit of incredible age may enter into the body
of a new-born infant. All my efforts thus far
have not availed me to trace the genealogy of
the man called Dr. Fu-Manchu. Even Kara-
maneh cannot help me in this. But I have some-
times thought that he was a member of a certain
very old Kiangsu family — and that the peculiar
conditions I have mentioned prevailed at his
birth ! "

Smith, observing our looks of amazement,
laughed shortly, and quite mirthlessly.

" Poor old Weymouth ! " he jerked. " I sup-
pose my labors are finished; but I am far from
triumphant. Is there any improvement in Mrs.
Weymouth's condition? "

" Very little," was the reply ; * she has lain in

348 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

a semi-conscious state since the news came. No
one had any idea she would take it so. At one
time we were afraid her brain was going. She
seemed to have delusions."

Smith spun round upon Weymouth.

li Of what nature? " he asked rapidly.

The other pulled nervously at his mustache.

" My wife has been staying with her," he ex-
plained, " since — it happened ; and for the last
three nights poor John's widow has cried out
at the same time — half-past two — that some-
one was knocking on the door."

"What door?"

" That door yonder — the street door."

All our eyes turned in the direction indicated.

" John often came home at half-past two from
the Yard," continued Weymouth ; " so we natu-
rally thought poor Mary was wandering in her
mind. But last night — and it's not to be won-
dered at — my wife couldn't sleep, and she was
wide awake at half -past two."

"Well?"

Nayland Smith was standing before him, alert,
bright-eyed.

" She heard it, too ! "

The sun was streaming into the cozy little sit-
ting-room; but I will confess that Weymouth's
words chilled me uncannily. Karamaneh laid

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 349

her hand upon mine, in a quaint, childish fashion
peculiarly her own. Her hand was cold, but its
touch thrilled me. For Karamaneh was not a
wJiild, but a rarely beautiful girl — a pearl of
Jhe East such as many a monarch has fought for.

" What then? " asked Smith.

" She was afraid to move — afraid to look
from the window ! "

My friend turned and stared hard at me.

"A subjective hallucination, Petrie?"

" In all probability," I replied. " You should
arrange that your wife be relieved in her trying
duties, Mr. Weymouth. Tt is too great a strain
for an inexperienced nurse."

Chapter XXVIII

OF all that we had hoped for in our pursuit
of Fu-Manchu how little had we accom-
plished. Excepting Karaman&h and her
brother (who were victims and not creatures of
the Chinese doctor's) not one of the formidable
group had fallen alive into our hands. Dread-
ful crimes had marked Fu-Manchu's passage
through the land. Not one-half of the truth (and
nothing of the later developments) had been made
public. Nayland Smith's authority was suffi-
cient to control the press.

In the absence of such a veto a veritable panic
must have seized upon the entire country; for a
monster — a thing more than humanly evil —
existed in our midst.

Always Fu-Manchu's secret activities had
centered about the great waterway. There was
much of poetic justice in his end ; for the Thames
had claimed him, who so long had used the stream
as a highway for the passage to and fro for his
secret forces. Gone now were the yellow men
who had been the instruments of his evil will;

350

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANQHU 351

gone was the giant intellect which had con-
trolled the complex murder machine. Kara-
maneh, whose beauty he had used as a lure, at
last was free, and no more with her smile would
tempt men to death — that her brother might
live.

Many there are, I doubt not, who will regard
the Eastern girl with horror. I ask their for-
giveness in that I regarded her quite differently.
No man having seen her could have condemned
her unheard. Many, having looked into her
lovely eyes, had they found there what I found,
must have forgiven her almost any crime.

That she valued human life but little was no
matter for wonder. Her nationality — her his-
tory — furnished adequate excuse for an attitude
not condonable in a European equally cultured.

But indeed let me confess that hers was a
nature incomprehensible to me in some respects.
The soul of Karamaneh was a closed book to my
short-sighted Western eyes. But the body of
Karamaneh was exquisite; her beauty of a kind
that was a key to the most extravagant rhapsodies
of Eastern poets. Her eyes held a challenge
wholly Oriental in its appeal; her lips, even in
repose, were a taunt. And, herein, East is West
and West is East.

Finally, despite her lurid history, despite the

352 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

scornful self-possession of which I knew her
capable, she was an unprotected girl — in years,
I believe, a mere child — whom Fate had cast
in my way. At her request, we had booked
passages for her brother and herself to Egypt.
The boat sailed in three days. But Karameneh's
beautiful eyes were sad; often I detected tears
on the black lashes. Shall I endeavor to describe
my own tumultuous, conflicting emotions? It
would be useless, since I know it to be impossi-
ble. For in those dark eyes burned a fire I
might not see; those silken lashes veiled a mes-
sage I dared not read.

Nayland Smith was not blind to the facts of
the complicated situation. I can truthfully as-
sert that he was the only man of my acquaintance
who, having come in contact with Karamaneh,
had kept his head.

We endeavored to divert her mind from the
recent tragedies by a round of amusements,
though with poor Weymouth's body still at the
mercy of unknown waters Smith and I made
but a poor show of gayety; and I took a gloomy
pride in the admiration which our lovely com-
panion everywhere excited. I learned, in those
days, how rare a thing in nature is a really
beautiful woman.

One afternoon we found ourselves at an ex-

THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 353

hibition of water colors in Bond Street. Kara-
maneh was intensely interested in the subjects
of the drawings — which were entirely Egyptian.
As usual, she furnished matter for comment
amongst the other visitors, as did the boy, Aziz,
her brother, anew upon the world from his living
grave in the house of Dr. Fu-Manchu.

Suddenly Aziz clutched at his sister's arm,
whispering rapidly in Arabic. I saw her peach-
like color fade; saw her become pale and wild-
eyed — the haunted Karamaneh of the old days.
She turned to me.

" Dr. Petrie — he says that Fu-Manchu is
here ! "

"Where?"

Nayland Smith rapped out the question vio-
lently, turning in a flash from the picture which
he was examining.

" In this room ! " she whispered glancing fur-
tively, aff rightedly about her. " Something tells
Aziz when he is near — and I, too, feel strangely
afraid. Oh, can it be that he is not dead ! "

She held my arm tightly. Her brother was
searching the room with big, velvet black eyes.
I studied the faces of the several visitors; and
Smith was staring about him with the old alert
look, and tugging nervously at the lobe of his ear.
The name of the giant foe of the white race in-

354 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

stantaneously had strung him up to a pitch of
supreme intensity.

Our united scrutinies discovered no figure
which could have been that of the Chinese doctor.
Who could mistake that long, gaunt shape, with
the high, mummy-like shoulders, and the inde-
scribable gait, which I can only liken to that
of an awkward cat?

Then, over the heads of a group of people who
stood by the doorway, I saw Smith peering at
someone — at someone who passed across the
outer room. Stepping aside, I, too, obtained a
glimpse of this person.

As I saw him, he was a tall, old man, wearing
a black Inverness coat and a rather shabby silk
hat. He had long white hair and a patriarchal
beard, wore smoked glasses and walked slowly,
leaning upon a stick.

Smith's gaunt face paled. With a rapid glance
at Karamaneh, he made off across the room.

Could it be Dr. Fu-Manchu?

Many days had passed since, already half-
choked by Inspector Weymouth's iron grip, Fu-
Manchu, before our own eyes, had been swal-
lowed up by the Thames. Even now men were
seeking his body, and that of his last victim.
Nor had we left any stone unturned. Acting
upon information furnished by Karamandh, the

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 355

police had searched every known haunt of the
murder group. But everything pointed to
the fact that the group was disbanded and dis-
persed; that the lord of strange deaths who had
ruled it was no more.

Yet Smith was not satisfied. Neither, let me
confess, was I. Every port was watched; and
in suspected districts a kind of house-to-house
patrol had been instituted. Unknown to the
great public, in those days a secret war waged
— a war in which all the available forces of the
authorities took the field against one man ! But
that one man was the evil of the East incarnate.

When we rejoined him, Nayland Smith was
talking to the commissionaire at the door. He
turned to me.

" That is Professor Jenner Monde," he said.
" The sergeant, here, knows him well."

The name of the celebrated Orientalist of
course was familiar to me, although I had never
before set eyes upon him.

" The Professor was out East the last time I
was there, sir," stated the commissionaire. " I
often used to see him. But he's an eccentric old
gentleman. Seems to live in a world of his own.
He's recently back from China, I think."

Nayland Smith stood clicking his teeth to-
gether in irritable hesitation. I heard Kara-

356 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

maneh sigh, and, looking at her, I saw that her
cheeks were regaining their natural color.

She smiled in pathetic apology.

" If he was here he is gone," she said. " I am
not afraid now."

Smith thanked the commissionaire for his in-
formation and we quitted the gallery.

" Professor Jenner Monde," muttered my
friend, " has lived so long in China as almost to
be a Chinaman. I have never met him — never
seen him, before; but I wonder — "

"You wonder what, Smith?"

" I wonder if he could possibly be an ally of
the Doctor's ! "

I stared at him in amazement.

" If we are to attach any importance to the
incident at all," I said, " we must remember that
the boy's impression — and Karamaneh's — was
that Fu-Manchu was present in person."

" I do attach importance to the incident,
Petrie; they are naturally sensitive to such im-
pressions. But I doubt if even the abnormal or-
ganization of Aziz could distinguish between the
hidden presence of a creature of the Doctor's
and that of the Doctor himself. I shall make
a point of calling upon Professor Jenner
Monde."

But Fate had ordained that much should hap-

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 357

pen ere Smith, made his proposed call upon the
Professor.

Karamaneh and her brother safely lodged in
their hotel (which was watched night and day
by four men under Smith's orders), we returned
to my quiet suburban rooms.

" First," said Smith, " let us see what we can
find out respecting Professor Monde."

He went to the telephone and called up New
Scotland Yard. There followed some little de-
lay before the requisite information was ob-
tained. Finally, however, we learned that the
Professor was something of a recluse, having few
acquaintances, and fewer friends.

He lived alone in chambers in New Inn Court,
Carey Street. A charwoman did such cleaning
as was considered necessary by the Professor,
who employed no regular domestic. When he
was in London he might be seen fairly frequently
at the British Museum, where his shabby figure
was familiar to the officials. When he was not
in London — that is, during the greater part
of each year — no one knew where he went. He
never left any address to which letters might be
forwarded.

"How long has he been in London now?"
asked Smith.

So far as could be ascertained from New Inn

358 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

Court (replied Scotland Yard) roughly a week.

My friend left the telephone and began rest*
lessly to pace the room. The charred briar was
produced and stuffed with that broad cut Latakia
mixture of which Nayland Smith consumed close
upon a pound a week. He was one of those un-
tidy smokers who leave tangled tufts hanging
from the pipe-bowl and when they light up strew
the floor with smoldering fragments.

A ringing came, and shortly afterwards a girl
entered.

" Mr. James Weymouth to see you, sir/'

" Hullo ! " rapped Smith. " What's this? "

Weymouth entered, big and florid, and in some
respects singularly like his brother, in others as
singularly unlike. Now, in his black suit, he was
a somber figure; and in the blue eyes I read a
fear suppressed.

" Mr. Smith," he began, " there's something
uncanny going on at Maple Cottage."

Smith wheeled the big arm-chair forward.

" Sit down, Mr. Weymouth," he said. " I am
not entirely surprised. But you have my atten-
tion. What has occurred?"

Weymouth took a cigarette from the box which.
I proffered and poured out a peg of whisky. His
hand was not quite steady.

" That knocking," he explained. " It came

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 359

again the night after you were there, and Mrs.
Weymouth — my wife, I mean — felt that she
couldn't spend another night there, alone — "

" Did she look out of the window? " I asked.

" No, Doctor ; she was afraid. But I spent
last night downstairs in the sitting-room — and
/ looked out!"

He took a gulp from his glass. Nayland
Smith, seated on the edge of the table, his ex-
tinguished pipe in his hand, was watching him
keenly.

" I'll admit I didn't look out at once," Wey-
mouth resumed. " There was something so un-
canny, gentlemen, in that knocking — knocking
— in the dead of the night. I thought " — his
voice shook — " of poor Jack, lying somewhere
amongst the slime of the river — and, oh, my
God! it came to me that it was Jack who was
knocking — and I dare not think what he —
what it — would look like ! "

He leaned forward, his chin in his hand. For
a few moments we were all silent.

" I know I funked," he continued huskily.
" But when the wife came to the head of the
stairs and whispered to me: ' There it is again.
What in heaven's name can it be ' — I started to
unbolt the door. The knocking had stopped.
Everything was very still. I heard Mary — his

360 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

widow — sobbing, upstairs ; that was all. I
opened the door, a little bit at a time."

Pausing again, he cleared his throat, and went
on:

" It was a bright night, and there was no one
there — not a soul. But somewhere down the
lane, as I looked out into the porch, I heard most
awful groans! They got fainter and fainter.
Then — I could have sworn I heard someone
laughing! My nerves cracked up at that; and I
shut the door again."

The narration of his weird experience revived
something of the natural fear which it had oc-
casioned. He raised his glass, with unsteady
hand, and drained it.

Smith struck a match and relighted his pipe.
He began to pace the room again. His eyes
were literally on fire.

" Would it be possible to get Mrs. Weymouth
out of the house before to-night? Remove her
to your place, for instance?" he asked abruptly.

Weymouth looked up in surprise.

" She seems to be in a very low state," he re-
plied. He glanced at me. " Perhaps Dr. Petrie
would give us an opinion?"

" I will come and see her," I said. " But what
is your idea, Smith?"

* I want to hear that knocking ! " he rapped.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 361

" But in what I may see fit to do I must not be
handicapped by the presence of a sick woman."

" Her condition at any rate will admit of our
administering an opiate," I suggested. " That
would meet the situation? "

" Good ! " cried Smith. He was intensely ex-
cited now. " I rely upon you to arrange some-
thing, Petrie. Mr. Weymouth " — he turned to
our visitor — " I shall be with you this evening
not later than twelve o'clock."

Weymouth appeared to be greatly relieved. I
asked him to wait whilst I prepared a draught
for the patient. When he was gone :

"What do you think this knocking means,
Smith?" I asked.

He tapped out his pipe on the side of the grate
and began with nervous energy to refill it again
from the dilapidated pouch.

" I dare not tell you what I hope, Petrie," he
replied — "nor what I fear."

Chapter XXIX

kUSK was falling when we made our way
in the direction of Maple Cottage. Nay-
land Smith appeared to be keenly inter-
ested in the character of the district. A high
and ancient wall bordered the road along which
we walked for a considerable distance. Later
it gave place to a rickety fence.

My friend peered through a gap in the latter.

" There is quite an extensive estate here," he
said, " not yet cut up by the builder. It is well
wooded on one side, and there appears to be a
pool lower down."

The road was a quiet one, and we plainly heard
the tread — quite unmistakable — of an ape
proaching policeman. Smith continued to peer
through the hole in the fence, until the officer
drew up level with us. Then :

" Does this piece of ground extend down to the
village, constable?" he inquired.

Quite willing for a chat, the man stopped, and
stood with his thumbs thrust in his belt.

" Yes, sir. They tell me three new roads will

362

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 368

be made through it between here and the hill."

" It must be a happy hunting ground for
tramps?"

" I've seen some suspicious-looking coves
about at times. But after dusk an army might
be inside there and nobody would ever be the
wiser."

" Burglaries frequent in the houses backing on
to it?"

" Oh, no. A favorite game in these parts is
snatching loaves and bottles of milk from the
doors, first thing, as they're delivered. There's
been an extra lot of it lately. My mate who re-
lieves me has got special instructions to keep his
eye open in the mornings ! " The man grinned.
" It wouldn't be a very big case even if he caught
anybody ! "

" No," said Smith absently ; " perhaps not.
Your business must be a dry one this warm
weather. Good-night."

" Good-night, sir," replied the constable, richer
by half-a-crown — "and thank you."

Smith stared after him for a moment, tugging
reflectively at the lobe of his ear.

" I don't know that it wouldn't be a big case,
after all," he murmured. " Come on, Petrie.*

Not another word did he speak, until we »tood
at the gate of Mapie Cottage, There a plain-

364 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCH^

/
clothes man was standing, evidently awaiting

Smith. He touched his hat. /

" Have you found a suitable hiding-p/ace? "
asked my companion rapidly. /

" Yes, sir," was the reply. " Kent — riy mate
— is there now. You'll notice that he /can't be
seen from here."

" No," agreed Smith, peering all aibout him.
"He can't. Where is he?"

" Behind the broken wall," explained the man,
pointing. " Through that ivy there's a clear
view of the cottage door."

" Good. Keep your eyes open. If a messen-
ger comes for me, he is to be intercepted, you
understand. No one must be allowed to disturb
us. You will recognize the messenger. He will
be one of your fellows. Should he come — hoot
three times, as much like an owl as you can."

We walked up to the porch of the cottage.
In response to Smith's ringing came James Wey-
mouth, who seemed greatly relieved by our ar-
rival.

" First," said my friend briskly, " you had
better run up and see the patient."

Accordingly, I followed Weymouth upstairs
and was admitted by his wife to a neat little bed-
room where the grief-stricken woman lay, a
wanly pathetic sight.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 365

"Did you administer the draught, as di-
rected? " I asked.

Mrs. James Weymouth nodded. She was a
kindly looking woman, with the same dread
haunting her hazel eyes as that which lurked in
her husband's blue ones.

The patient was sleeping soundly. Some
whispered instructions I gave to the faithful
nurse and descended to the sitting-room. It was
a warm night, and Weymouth sat by the open
window, smoking. The dim light from the lamp
on the table lent him an almost startling like-
ness to his brother ; and for a moment I stood at
the foot of the stairs scarce able to trust my
reason. Then he turned his face fully towards
me, and the illusion was lost.

" Do you think she is likely to wake, Doctor? "
he asked.

" I think not," I replied.

Nayland Smith stood upon the rug before the
hearth, swinging from one foot to the other, in
his nervously restless way. The room was foggy
with the fumes of tobacco, for he, too, was smok-
ing.

At intervals of some five to ten minutes*
his blackened briar (which I never knew him to
clean or scrape) would go out. I think Smith
used more matches than any other smoker I have

366 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

ever met, and he invariably carried three boxes
in various pockets of his garments.

The tobacco habit is infectious, and, seating
myself in an arm-chair, I lighted a cigarette.
For this dreary vigil I had come prepared- with
a bunch of rough notes, a writing-block, and a
fountain pen. I settled down to work upon my
record of the Fu-Manchu case.

Silence fell upon Maple Cottage. Save for
the shuddering sigh which whispered through
the over-hanging cedars and Smith's eternal
match-striking, nothing was there to disturb me
in my task. Yet I could make little progress.
Between my mind and the chapter upon which
I was at work a certain sentence persistently
intruded itself. It was as though an unseen
hand held the written page closely before my
eyes. This was the sentence:

" Imagine a person, tall, lean, and feline, high-
shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a
face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long,
magnetic eyes of the true cat-green: invest him
with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern
race, accumulated in one giant intellect . . ."

Dr. Fu-Manchu! Fu-Mancfiu as Smith had
described him to me on that night which now
seemed so remotely distant — the night upon
which I had learned of the existence of the

THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 367

wonderful and evil being born of that secret
quickening which, stirred in the womb of the yel-
low races.

As Smith, for the ninth or tenth time, knocked
out his pipe on a bar of the grate, the cuckoo
clock in the kitchen proclaimed the hour.

" Two," said James Weymouth.

I abandoned my task, replacing notes and
writing-block in the bag that I had with me.
Weymouth adjusted the lamp which had begun
to smoke.

I tiptoed to the stairs and, stepping softly,
ascended to the sick room. All was quiet, and
Mrs. Weymouth whispered to me that the patient
still slept soundly. I returned to find Nayland
Smith pacing about the room in that state of sup-
pressed excitement habitual with him in the ap-
proach of any crisis. At a quarter past two the
breeze dropped entirely, and such a stillness
reigned all about us as I could not have supposed
possible so near to the ever-throbbing heart of
the great metropolis. Plainly I could hear Wey-
mouth's heavy breathing. He sat at the win-
dow and looked out into the black shadows under
the cedars. Smith ceased his pacing and stood
again on the rug very still. He was listening!
I doubt not we were all listening.

Some faint sound broke the impressive still-

£68 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

jiess, coming from the direction of the village
street. It was a vague, indefinite disturbance,
brief, and upon it ensued a silence more marked
than ever. Some minutes before, Smith had ex-
tinguished the lamp. In the darkness I heard
his teeth snap sharply together.

The call of an owl sounded very clearly three
times.

I knew that to mean that a messenger had
come; but from whence or bearing what tidings
I knew not. My friend's plans were incompre-
hensible to me, nor had I pressed him for any ex-
planation of their nature, knowing him to be in
that high-strung and somewhat irritable mood
which claimed him at times of uncertainty —
when he doubted the wisdom of his actions, the
accuracy of his surmises. He gave no sign.

Very faintly I heard a clock strike the half-
hour. A soft breeze stole again through the
branches above. The wind I thought must be
in a new quarter since I had not heard the clock
before. In so lonely a spot it was difficult to
believe that the bell was that of St. Paul's. Yet
such was the fact.

And hard upon the ringing followed another
sound — a sound we all had expected, had waited
for; but at whose coming no one of us, I think,
retained complete mastery of himself.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 369

Breaking up the silence in a manner that set
my heart wildly leaping it came — an imperative
knocking on the door !

" My God ! " groaned Weymouth — but he did
not move from his position at the window.

" Stand by, Petrie ! " said Smith.

He strode to the door — and threw it widely
open.

I know I was very pale. I think I cried out
as I fell back — retreated with clenched hands
from before that which stood on the threshold.

It was a wild, unkempt figure, with straggling
beard, hideously staring eyes. With its hands
it clutched at its hair — at its chin; plucked at
its mouth. No moonlight touched the features
of this unearthly visitant, but scanty as was the
illumination we could see the gleaming teeth —
and the wildly glaring eyes.

It began to laugh — peal after peal — hideous
and shrill.

Nothing so terrifying had ever smote upon my
ears. I was palsied by the horror of the sound.

Then Nayland Smith pressed the button of an
electric torch which he carried. He directed
the disk of white light fully upon the face in the
doorway.

" Oh, God ! " cried Weymouth. " It's John ! "
— and again and again : " Oh, God ! Oh, God ! £

370 THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU

Perhaps for the first time in my life I really
believed (nay, I could not doubt) that a thing of
another world stood before me. I am ashamed
to confess the extent of the horror that came
upon me. James Weymouth raised his hands,
as if to thrust away from him that awful thing
in the door. He was babbling — prayers, I
think, but wholly incoherent.

"Hold him, Petrie!"

Smith's voice was low. (When we were past
thought or intelligent action, he, dominant and
cool, with that forced calm for which, a crisis
over, he always paid so dearly, was thinking of
the woman who slept above.)

He leaped forward; and in the instant that he
grappled with the one who had knocked I knew
the visitant for a man of flesh and blood — a
man who shrieked and fought like a savage ani-
mal, foamed at the mouth and gnashed his teeth"
in horrid frenzy ; knew him for a madman —
knew him for the victim of Fu-Manchu — not
dead, but living — for Inspector Weymouth — a
maniac !

In a flash I realized all this and sprang to
Smith's assistance. There was a sound of racing
footsteps and the men who had been watching
outside came running into the porch. A third
was with them; and the fiye of us (for Wey<

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 371

mouth's brother had not yet grasped the fact
that a man and not a spirit shrieked and howled
in our midst) clung to the infuriated madman5
yet barely held our own with him.

" The syringe, Petrie ! " gasped Smith,
" Quick ! You must manage to make an injec-
tion!"

I extricated myself and raced into the cottage
for my bag. A hypodermic syringe ready
charged I had brought with me at Smith's re-
quest. Even in that thrilling moment I could
find time to admire the wonderful foresight of
my friend, who had divined what would befall
— isolated the strange, pitiful truth from the
chaotic circumstances which saw us at Maple
Cottage that night.

Let me not enlarge upon the end of the awful
struggle. At one time I despaired (we all de-
spaired) of quieting the poor, demented creature.
But at last it was done; and the gaunt, blood-
stained savage whoaa we had know£ as Detect-
ive-Inspector Weymouth lay passive upon the
couch in his own sitting-room. A great wonder
possessed my mind for the genius of the uncanny
being who with the scratch of a needle had made
a brave and kindly man into this unclean, bru-
tish thing.

Nayland Smith, gaunt and wild-eyed, and

372 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

trembling yet with his tremendous exertions^
turned to the man whom I knew to be the mes-
senger from Scotland Yard.

"Well?" he rapped.

" He is arrested, sir/' the detective reported.
" They have kept him at his chambers as you
ordered."

"Has she slept through it?" said Smith to
me. (I had just returned from a visit to the
room above.) I nodded.

" Is he safe for an hour or two? " — indicating
the figure on the couch.

" For eight or ten," I replied grimly.

"Come, then. Our night's labors are not
nearly complete.'*

Chapter XXX

LATER was forthcoming evidence to show
that poor Weymouth had lived a wild life,
in hiding among the thick bushes of the
tract of land which lay between the village and
the suburb on the neighboring hill. Literally,
he had returned to primitive savagery and some
of his food had been that of the lower animals,
though he had not scrupled to steal, as we learned
when his lair was discovered.

He had hidden himself cunningly; but wit-
nesses appeared who had seen him, in the dusk,
and fled from him. They never learned that the
object of their fear was Inspector John Wey-
mouth. How, having escaped death in the
Thames, he had crossed London unobserved, we
never knew; but his trick of knocking upon his
own door at half-past two each morning (a sort
of dawning of sanity mysteriously linked with
old custom) will be a familiar class of symptom
to all students of alienation.

I revert to the night when Smith solved tha
mystery of the knocking.

373

374 THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU

In a car which he had in waiting at the end of
the village we sped through the deserted streets
to New Inn Court. I, who had followed Nay-
land Smith through the failures and successes
of his mission, knew that to-night he had sur-
passed himself; had justified the confidence
placed in him by the highest authorities.

We were admitted to an untidy room — that
of a student, a traveler and a crank — by a plain-
clothes officer. Amid picturesque and disordered
fragments of a hundred ages, in a great carven
chair placed before a towering statue of the
Buddha, sat a hand-cuffed man. His white hair
and beard were patriarchal; his pose had great
dignity. But his expression was entirely masked
by the smoked glasses which he wore.

Two other detectives were guarding the
prisoner.

" We arrested Professor 3enner Monde as he
came in, sir," reported the man who had opened
the door. " He has made no statement. I hope
there isn't a mistake."

" I hope not," rapped Smith.

He strode across the room. He was consumed
by a fever of excitement. Almost savagely, he
tore away the beard, tore off the snowy wig —
dashed the smoked glasses upon the floor.

A great, high brow was revealed, and green,

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 375

malignant eyes, which fixed themselves upon him
with an expression I never can forget.

It was Dr. Fu-Manchu!

One intense moment of silence ensued — of
silence which seemed to throb. Then :

" What have you done with Professor Monde? "
demanded Smith.

Dr. Fu-Manchu showed his even, yellow teeth
in the singularly evil smile which I knew so well.
A manacled prisoner he sat as unruffled as a
judge upon the bench. In truth and in justice I
am compelled to say that Fu-Manchu was abso
lutely fearless.

" He has been detained in China," he replied,
in smooth, sibilant tones — " by affairs of great
urgency. His well-known personality and un-
gregarious habits have served me well, here ! "

Smith, I could see, was undetermined how to
act; he stood tugging at his ear and glancing
from the impassive Chinaman to the wondering
detectives.

" What are we to do, sir? " one of them asked.

" Leave Dr. Petrie and myself alone with the
prisoner, until I call you."

The three withdrew. I divined now what was
coming.

" Can you restore Weymouth's sanity? "
rapped Smith abruptly. " I cannot save you

376 THE INSIDIOUS DB. FU-MANCHU

from the hangman, nor " — his fists clenched
convulsively — " would I if I could ; but — "

Fu-Manchu fixed his brilliant eyes upon him.

" Say no more, Mr. Smith," he interrupted ;
" you misunderstand me. I do not quarrel with
that, but what I have done from conviction and
what I have done of necessity are separated — -
are seas apart. The brave Inspector Weymouth
I wounded with a poisoned needle, in self-defense ;
but I regret his condition as greatly as you do.
I respect such a man. There is an antidote t<v
the poison of the needle."

" Name it," said Smith.

Fu-Manchu smiled again.

" Useless," he replied. " I alone can prepare
it. My secrets shall die with me. I will make
a sane man of Inspector Weymouth, but no one
else shall be in the house but he and I."

" It will be surrounded by police," interrupted
Smith grimly.

"As you please," said Fu-Manchu. "Make
your arrangements. In that ebony case upon
the table are the instruments for the cure. Ar-
range for me to visit him where and when you
will — "

" I distrust you utterly. It is some trick,"
jerked Smith.

Dr. Fu-Manchu rose slowly and drew himself

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 377

up to his great height. His manacled hands
could not rob him of the uncanny dignity which
was his. He raised them above his head with a
tragic gesture and fixed his piercing gaze upon
Nayland Smith.

" The God of Cathay hear me," he said, with a
deep, guttural note in his voice — " I swear — "

The most awful visitor who ever threatened
the peace of England, the end of the visit of
Fu-Manchu was characteristic — terrible — in-
explicable.

Strange to relate, I did not doubt that this
weird being had conceived some kind of adnrira*
tion or respect for the man to whom he had
wrought so terrible an injury. He was capable
of such sentiments, for he entertained some sim-
ilar one in regard to myself.

A cottage farther down the village street than
Weymouth's was vacant, and in the early dawn
of that morning became the scene of outre hap-
penings. Poor Weymouth, still in a comatose
condition, we removed there (Smith having se-
cured the key from the astonished agent). I
suppose so strange a specialist never visited a
patient before — certainly not under such con-
ditions.

For into the cottage, which had been entirely

378 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

surrounded by a ring of police, Dr. Fu-Manchu
was admitted from the closed car in which, his
work of healing complete, he was to be borne to
prison — to death!

Law and justice were suspended by my royally
empowered friend that the enemy of the white
race might heal one of those who had hunted him
down !

No curious audience was present, for sunrise
was not yet come; no concourse of excited stu-
dents followed the hand of the Master ; but with-
in that surrounded cottage was performed one
of those miracles of science which in other cir-
cumstances had made the fame of Dr. Fu-Man-
chu to live forever.

Inspector Weymouth, dazed, disheveled,
clutching his head as a man who has passed
through the Valley of the Shadow — but sane —
sane ! — walked out into the porch !

He looked towards us — his eyes wild, but not
with the fearsome wildness of insanity.

" Mr. Smith ! " he cried — and staggered down
the path — " Dr. Petrie ! What — "

There came a deafening explosion. From
every visible window of the deserted cottage
Hames burst forth !

a Quick! " Smith's voice rose almost to a
scream — " into the house ! "

THE INSIDIOUS DE. FU-MANCHU 379

He raced up the path, past Inspector Wey-
mouth, who stood swaying there like a drunken
man. I was close upon his heels. Behind me
came the police.

The door was impassable! Already, it vom-
ited a deathly heat, borne upon stifling fumes
like those of the mouth of the Pit. We burst a
window. The room within was a furnace!

" My God ! " cried someone. " This is super-
natural ! "

" Listen ! " cried another. " Listen ! "

The crowd which a fire can conjure up at any]
hour of day or night, out of the void of nowhere,
was gathering already. But upon all descended
a pall of silence.

From the heat of the holocaust a voice pro-
claimed itself — a voice raised, not in anguish
but in triumph! It chanted barbarically — and
was still.

The abnormal flames rose higher — leaping
forth from every window.

" The alarm ! " said Smith hoarsely. " Call
up the brigade ! "

• ••••••

I come to the close of my chronicle, and feel
that I betray a trust — the trust of my reader.
For having limned in the colors at my command
the fiendish Chinese doctor, I am unable to con-

380 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

elude my task as I should desire, unable, with
any consciousness of finality, to write Finis to
the end of my narrative.

It seems to me sometimes that my pen is but
temporarily idle — that I have but dealt with a
single phase of a movement having a hundred
phases. One sequel I hope for, and against all
the promptings of logic and Western bias. If
my hope shall be realized I cannot, at this time,
pretend to state.

The future, ?mid its many secrets, holds this
precious one from me.

I ask you then, to absolve me from the charge
of ill completing my work ; for any curiosity with
which this narrative may leave the reader
burdened is shared by the writer.

With intent, I have rushed you from the cham-
bers of Professor Jenner Monde to that closing
episode at the deserted cottage; I have made the
pace hot in order to* impart to these last
pages of my account something of the breath-
less scurry which characterized those happen-
ings.

My canvas may seem sketchy : it is my impres-
sion of the reality. No hard details remain in
my mind of the dealings of that night. Fu-
Manchu arrested — Fu-Manchu, manacled, en-
tering the cottage on his mission of healing;

THE INSIDIOUS DK. FU-MANCHU 381

Weymouth, miraculously rendered sane, coming
forth ; the place in flames.

And then?

To a shell the cottage burned, with an in-
credible rapidity which pointed to some hidden
agency; to a shell about ashes which held no
trace of human bones!

It has been asked of me: Was there no pos-
sibility of Fu-Manchu's having eluded us in the
ensuing confusion? Was there no loophole of
escape?

I reply, that so far as I was able to judge, a
rat could scarce have quitted the building unde-
tected. Yet that Fu-Manchu had, in some in-
comprehensible manner and by some mysterious
agency, produced those abnormal flames, I cannot
doubt. Did he voluntarily ignite his own fu-
neral pyre?

As I write, there lies before me a soiled and
creased sheet of vellum. It bears some lines
traced in a cramped, peculiar, and all but il-
legible hand. This fragment was found by In-
spector Weymouth (to this day a man mentally
sound) in a pocket of his ragged garments.

When it was written I leave you to judge.
How it came to be where Weymouth found it
calls for no explanation:

382 THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU

" To Mr. Commissioner Nayland Smith and
Dr. Petrie —

" Greeting ! I am recalled home by One who
may not be denied. In much that I came to do I
have failed. Much that I have done I would
undo; some little I have undone. Out of fire I
came — the smoldering fire of a thing one day
to be a consuming flame; in fire I go. Seek not
my ashes. I am the lord of the fires ! Farewell.

" Fu-Manchu."

Who has been with me in my several meetings
with the man who penned that message I leave
to adjudge if it be the letter of a madman bent
upon self-destruction by strange means, or the
gibe of a preternaturally clever scientist and the
most elusive being ever born of the land of mys-
tery — China.

For the present, I can aid you no more in the
forming of your verdict. A day may come —
though I pray it do not — when 1 shall be able to
throw new light upon much that is dark in this
matter. That day, so far as I can judge, could
only dawn in the event of the Chinaman's sur-
vival; therefore I pray that the veil be never
lifted.

But, as I have said, there is another sequel to
this story which I can contemplate with a dif-

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU 383

ferent countenance. How, then, shall I con-
clude this very unsatisfactory account?

Shall I tell you, finally, of my parting with
lovely, dark-eyed Karamaneh, on board the liner
which was to bear her to Egypt?

No, let me, instead, conclude with the words
of Nayland Smith:

ul sail for Burma in a fortnight, Petrie. I
have leave to break my journey at the Ditch*
How would a run up the Nile fit your programme?
Bit early for the season, but you might find some/
thing to amuse you ! n

The End

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Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. Edgar Rice Burroughs.
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Tex. Clarence E. Mulford.

NIVERSITY Of N C AT CHAPEL HILL

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Full text of "The insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu : being a somewhat detailed account of the amazing adventures of Nayland Smith in his trailing of the sinister Chinaman"

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